Taxonomy Graphic Organizer – Domain to Species Chart

How it works

This taxonomy graphic organizer prints the ranks in order down the side, so the work left is finding the group an organism belongs to at each one. Every row is a smaller group inside the row above it.

Read the full guide

Seven ranks or eight

The seven main ranks run from kingdom to species. Domain, proposed in 1990, is often placed above them as an eighth. Print the chart that matches your textbook: the opening sheet starts at domain and the seven-rank sheet starts at kingdom.

A common memory sentence is "Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup": one word for each rank, domain to species.
For a plant, the rank called phylum may appear in a reference as division.

Questions and answers

What are the 8 levels of taxonomy in order?

Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species, from the largest group to the smallest.

What is an example of taxonomy from domain to species?

The red fox: domain Eukarya, kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, family Canidae, genus Vulpes, species Vulpes vulpes. The first filled-in sample shows it on the chart.

What is the difference between genus and species?

A genus is a group of species, and a species is one kind of living thing inside it. The genus Vulpes holds the true foxes. Vulpes vulpes, the red fox, is one of them.

All 11 organizers

Domain to species 6

Each rank with others in the same group Beside each group name, a box for other living things that belong to it. The lists get shorter toward species.
Seven ranks: kingdom to species The same chart without the domain row, for a class that starts at kingdom.
Taxonomy graphic organizer: domain to species The eight ranks printed down the side, largest group first, with a box beside each for the group one organism belongs to.
Three organisms on a sideways page Three columns on a landscape page, for comparing close and distant relatives.
Two organisms side by side A column for each of two living things. Fill both in and find the rank where their groups stop matching.
Two to a page: domain to species Two half sheets with a cut line between them, each with the eight ranks and a box for one organism.

Names and memory 3

The eight ranks from memory Eight numbered rows and no printed ranks. Write them in order, largest group first, and add a way to remember each.
Memory sentence: a word for each rank Write a word that starts with the same letter as each rank, then read your eight words down the page as one sentence.
Scientific names chart One row an organism: its common name, its genus, the second word of its name, and the two together. The genus starts with a capital letter, the second word with a small one, and a handwritten scientific name is underlined.

Filled-in samples 2

Sample of two organisms: the red fox and a human The two share every group down to class, Mammalia, and part ways at order: Carnivora for the fox, Primates for the human.
Sample taxonomy organizer, filled in: the red fox The opening chart done for the red fox, from Eukarya down to Vulpes vulpes.