“Animal Portfolio”

Animal Portfolio

Introduction

There are primary categories of animals, which is comprised of vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates are considered as those animals, which possess a backbone; whereas, invertebrate specie is considered to be without backbone (Duffy & Capece, 2012). When a common man consider of an animal, he/she would thinks of a lion, tiger, bear etc. Though, in its daily life, he/she comes across with hundreds of animals, which he had never thought of considering as an animal. For instance, an earthworm or a calm jelly fish.

There are around 750,000 species registered in the animal kingdom. The study of classifying animals into different groups in known as taxonomy. Within taxonomy, scientists classify each animal on a scale of seven factors, starting from the classification of kingdom till the identification of the specie (Lipinski, 2008). The seven taxons include Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. The animal, which I have chosen is “Domestic Cat”, though it is principally a very common domestic pet, but considering its binomial structure, every animal is equal while understanding its classification (Wei, et al. 2009). The further classification of Domestic Cat is structured underneath the following captions.

Taxonomy of Domestic Cat

Kingdom

Principally there are five sub categories with in kingdom, however, a six category is included in various discourse that further categories animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. Domestic Cat primarily falls under the category of animalia, in which every animal falls (Lipinski, 2008). Despite of animalia, there are also other categories where plants, cells, fungus and bacteria fall.

Phylum

Further in the Phyla, there are also various sub-categories, out of which Domestic Cat falls under Phylum Chordata. This is considerably the category in which all vertebrates (animals with backbones) fall (Lipinski, 2008). Domestic Cat is primarily a vertebrate, which has all the other characteristics that are required for an animal to be considered within the category of Chordata.

Classes

Moreover, this phylum is further divided into classes, which elucidate upon the physical characteristics of animals (Duffy & Capece, 2012). The Phyla Chordata is further divided into various classes, which includes birds, reptile, amphibians, mammals and numerous other classes. Principally domestic cat falls under the class of mammals.

Order

Moreover, each class in further divided into various orders. In the case of Domestic Cat, this falls under the category of mammalia. Mammalia are further divided into various orders including Chiroptera, Artiodactyla, Primates, Rodentia, Insectivora, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Proboscide and numerous others (Lipinski, 2008). Domestic Cat principally falls in the order of Carnivora, which includes dogs, cats, and other carnivorous mammals.

Families

Within each order of Carnivora, there are various families in which different carnivorous mammals fall. The further division of order includes Canidea (family of Dogs), Felidea (family of Cats), Hyaenidea (family of Hyaenas and Aardwolves), Ursidae (family of Bears) and many more (Lipinski, 2008). Thus, as mentioned, Domestic Cat falls under the family of Felidea, in which every Cat falls, including Lion, Tiger and Leopard etc (Morgan, 2010).

Genus

Furthermore, the family of Felidea is further sub-divided into various Geneses, which includes Cheetah (Acinonyx), Lion and Tiger (Panthera), Leopards ...