Taxonomy Flashcards

Taxonomy flashcards — the free 18

Every question and answer on the free cards, written out. Check them against your own textbook before you spend anything.

The eight ranks of classification, broadest to narrowest

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

A mnemonic for the ranks

King Philip Came Over For Good Soup — KPCOFGS; add a D word in front (Did, Dear) for Domain

Domain

Broadest rank, above kingdom — Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya

Is a kingdom the top of the hierarchy?

No — since Woese, Kandler & Wheelis (1990) kingdoms sit inside three domains

Kingdom

Rank below domain, above phylum — the highest principal rank the botanical Code names

Phylum

Rank below kingdom, above class — e.g. Chordata; botanists may call this same rank a division

Division

The botanical name for the rank of phylum — the ICN reads 'division or phylum'

Class

Rank below phylum, above order — e.g. Mammalia

Order

Rank below class, above family — e.g. Primates

Family

Rank below order, above genus — e.g. Hominidae

Genus

Rank below family, above species; the capitalised first word of a binomial — e.g. Homo

Species (as a rank)

The basic rank. The species name is the whole binomial — Homo sapiens; the lowercase second word is the epithet

Species (as a biological group)

Organisms that interbreed and produce fertile offspring — the biological species concept

How a scientific name is written

Genus capitalised, species epithet lowercase, both italic — Homo sapiens

Full classification of Homo sapiens

Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Primates, Hominidae, Homo, Homo sapiens

May the ranks be reordered?

No — the relative order of ranks must not be altered; each rank nests inside the one above it

Where subphylum, subclass and superfamily fit

Extra ranks made by prefixing sub- or super-; each sits just below or above its principal rank

Which code names animals, and which names plants?

Animals — the ICZN; algae, fungi and plants — the ICN

Taxonomy flashcards — questions people ask

How many cards are in the Taxonomy flashcard deck?

The Taxonomy deck on PuzzlePage has 18 cards, and all 18 are free to play and free to download with no account and no payment. 18 cards — eight ranks is the whole ladder, plus the division/phylum split, the naming rules, the mnemonics and a worked example. There is nothing else in the topic to add without padding.

What is on the taxonomy flashcards?

Domain through species: what each rank means, why phylum is called division in botany, the standard mnemonics, and Homo sapiens worked through end to end. Cards look like this: The eight ranks of classification, broadest to narrowest → Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species; A mnemonic for the ranks → King Philip Came Over For Good Soup — KPCOFGS; add a D word in front (Did, Dear) for Domain. The deck is written for grades 6–12 and filed under science.

Can I study taxonomy flashcards online for free?

Yes. All 18 cards of the Taxonomy deck play free in any web browser at puzzlepage.app, with no account, no app and no card details. It works on a phone, tablet, Chromebook, laptop or classroom projector. Practice mode flips through the cards with nothing scored; quiz mode makes you answer each card before it flips, times the run and scores it.

Are the taxonomy flashcards accurate?

Every card in the Taxonomy deck cites two independent published sources — two different organisations, not a standards body and a site reprinting it — and a script checks that, rather than taking the writer's word for it. A second specialist then re-verified the deck against sources of their own, without reading the citations first. That is the difference from a user-generated flashcard site, where the cards are whatever a stranger typed and nobody is accountable for them.

Can I print the taxonomy flashcards?

Yes. The Taxonomy cards are available as a printable double-sided PDF to cut up, as well as playable in the browser. The whole 18-card printable is free to download, with no account.

How should I use the Taxonomy deck to revise?

Start in practice mode and go through the Taxonomy deck once without scoring, to find out which cards you already know — the deck is dealt in a different order every time you open it, so you are recalling the card rather than its position. Then switch to quiz mode, which times and scores the run and lets you re-run only the cards you missed. Use the "flip deck" control to swap which side is the question: recognising an answer is much easier than producing one, so a deck you find easy one way round is usually the harder and more useful drill the other way. Two or three short sessions across a week beat one long one, which is the whole reason flashcards work.

What grade level are the taxonomy flashcards for?

The Taxonomy deck is written for grades 6–12. Because the cards are plain term-and-answer pairs, they are also used outside that band — by adults revising science, and by teachers running them as a whole-class starter on a projector.