Order (biology)

Order (biology)

An order is one of the eight main groups scientists use to sort and study living things. It sits between two other groups called family and class. All living things in the same order share a common ancestor. For example, all owls belong to the order Strigiformes.

Scientists called taxonomists decide which living things belong to each order. Sometimes scientists disagree, so different scientists might put living things in different orders.

Orders often have special naming patterns. For plants, fungi, and algae, orders usually end in "-ales". Birds and fishes often have names ending in "-iformes", meaning "having the form of". Many insects have orders ending in "-ptera", meaning "wing". But mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates don’t follow such a clear pattern.

Hierarchy of ranks

In biology, scientists group living things into different levels to show how they are related. One of these levels is called "order." It sits between two other levels: family and class. For example, all owls belong to the same order, which helps us see that they share common traits.

When studying animals, some scientists add extra levels between bigger groups, but these aren't always officially recognized. In plants, there are also special levels above and below the order level, which help organize the many types of plants.

History

The idea of an "order" in biology began with a German botanist named Augustus Quirinus Rivinus in the 1690s. Later, Carl Linnaeus used this idea in his famous book, Systema Naturae, in 1735. He used it to organize animals, plants, and minerals into groups.

In plants, Linnaeus used orders to divide bigger groups into smaller parts. Over time, scientists changed how they used these orders. In animal studies, Linnaeus’s orders stayed the same. Some names, like Lepidoptera for moths and butterflies, are still used today.

For viruses, orders used to be the highest grouping. In 2018, new higher groups were added. Virus orders end in "virales".