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Family (biology)

Family (biology)

Family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy; it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as being the "walnut family".

What does or does not belong to a family—or whether a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opinion often enables adjustments and consensus.

Nomenclature

The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes:

  • In fungal, algal, and botanical nomenclature, the family names of plants, fungi, and algae end with the suffix "-aceae", with the exception of a small number of historic but widely used names including Compositae and Gramineae.[1][2]

  • In zoological nomenclature, the family names of animals end with the suffix "-idae".[3]

History

  • The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called the seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families (familiae). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera, which is far from how the term is used today.

  • Carolus Linnaeus used the word familia in his Philosophia botanica (1751) to denote major groups of plants: trees, herbs, ferns, palms, and so on. He used this term only in the morphological section of the book, discussing the vegetative and generative organs of plants.

  • Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis).

  • In zoology, the family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods).

  • In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family.

Uses

Families can be used for evolutionary, palaeontological and genetic studies because they are more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species.[4][5]

See also

  • Systematics, the study of the diversity of life

  • Cladistics, the classification of organisms by their order of branching in an evolutionary tree

  • Phylogenetics, the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms

  • Taxonomy

  • Virus classification

  • List of Anuran families

  • List of Testudines families

  • List of fish families

  • List of families of spiders

References

[1]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgBarnhart, John Hendley (15 January 1895). "Family Nomenclature". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 22 (1): 1–25. doi:10.2307/2485402. JSTOR 2485402..
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[2]
Citation Linkwww.iapt-taxon.orgICN (2012). "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants". Bratislava: International Association for Plant Taxonomy. Retrieved 17 January 2016., Section 2. Names of families and subfamilies, tribes and subtribes Article 18.
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[3]
Citation Linkwww.nhm.ac.ukInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999). "Article 29.2. Suffixes for family-group names". International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Fourth ed.). International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, XXIX. p. 306. [1]
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[4]
Citation Linkrsbl.royalsocietypublishing.orgSarda Sahney, Michael J. Benton & Paul A. Ferry (2010). "Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land". Biology Letters. 6 (4): 544–547. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024. PMC 2936204. PMID 20106856. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2010. Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[5]
Citation Link//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18198148Sarda Sahney & Michael J. Benton (2008). "Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 275 (1636): 759–765. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1370. PMC 2596898. PMID 18198148.
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[6]
Citation Link//doi.org/10.2307%2F121622610.2307/1216226
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[7]
Citation Link//www.jstor.org/stable/12162261216226
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[8]
Citation Link//doi.org/10.2307%2F121750310.2307/1217503
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[9]
Citation Link//www.jstor.org/stable/12175031217503
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[10]
Citation Linkdoi.org10.2307/2485402
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[11]
Citation Linkwww.jstor.org2485402
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[12]
Citation Linkwww.iapt-taxon.org"International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants"
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[13]
Citation Linkwww.iapt-taxon.orgSection 2. Names of families and subfamilies, tribes and subtribes Article 18
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[14]
Citation Linkiczn.orgInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[15]
Citation Linkwww.nhm.ac.uk[1]
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[16]
Citation Linkweb.archive.org"Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land"
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[17]
Citation Linkdoi.org10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[18]
Citation Linkwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov2936204
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[19]
Citation Linkwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov20106856
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM
[20]
Citation Linkrsbl.royalsocietypublishing.orgthe original
Sep 19, 2019, 9:17 AM