Classification guide
Understand what each classification level means and see how it applies to the Florida manatee.
Featured example: Florida manatee
The broadest standard rank. A domain groups life by fundamental cell organization and evolutionary history.
Manatee cells contain a membrane-bound nucleus and other internal organelles.
Examples or context: Plants, fungi, animals, and many single-celled organisms
A kingdom is a very broad branch within a domain. Animalia includes multicellular organisms that obtain energy by consuming other organisms.
The manatee is multicellular, eats plants, develops from an embryo, and has animal tissues and movement.
Examples or context: Sponges, insects, corals, birds, and mammals
A phylum gathers animals that share a fundamental body plan and deep evolutionary features.
During development, the manatee shows chordate features such as a dorsal nerve cord and a notochord-related axial skeleton.
Examples or context: Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
A class divides a phylum into major groups with a more specific shared set of traits.
It breathes air with lungs, is warm-blooded, has hair, gives live birth, and females produce milk.
Examples or context: Elephants, bats, whales, humans, and manatees
An order gathers related families within a class. Members usually share a distinctive evolutionary design and way of life.
Sirenian mammals are fully aquatic herbivores with paddle-like forelimbs, dense bones, and no external hind limbs.
Examples or context: Manatees and the dugong
A family gathers one or more closely related genera. Family names often end in “-idae” in zoology.
Trichechidae is the manatee family. Its living members have a broad, rounded paddle-shaped tail.
Examples or context: Amazonian, African, and West Indian manatees
A genus groups very closely related species and forms the first word of a scientific species name.
Trichechus is the living manatee genus, distinct from the dugong genus Dugong.
Examples or context: Trichechus inunguis, T. senegalensis, and T. manatus
A species is a basic named unit of biodiversity: a distinct evolutionary lineage with a shared scientific name.
Trichechus manatus is the West Indian manatee, distributed through parts of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, and nearby waterways.
Examples or context: Florida and Antillean manatee populations
A subspecies is a recognized population within a species that has persistent geographic or biological differences while remaining part of that species.
The Florida manatee is the Florida-associated subspecies of the West Indian manatee.
Examples or context: Abbreviated as T. m. latirostris
Return to this animal or discover another species.
