Related topics: species

Ancient creature discovered in the depths of the Arctic Ocean

In the depths of the Arctic Ocean, buried deep in the sediment, an ancient creature waited for over a million years to be discovered. Paul Valentich-Scott, from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (California), and ...

Altamura Man yields oldest Neanderthal DNA sample

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working in Italy has confirmed that Altamura Man was a Neanderthal and dating of pieces of calcite which were on the remains has revealed that the bones are 128,000 to 187,000 years old. ...

Scientists revise timeline of human origins

Many traits unique to humans were long thought to have originated in the genus Homo between 2.4 and 1.8 million years ago in Africa. Although scientists have recognized these characteristics for decades, they are reconsidering ...

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Genus

In biology, a genus (plural: genera) is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia. Genera and higher taxonomic levels such as families are used in biodiversity studies, particularly in fossil studies since species cannot always be confidently identified and genera and families typically have longer stratigraphic ranges than species.

The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender", cognate with Greek: γένος – genos, "race, stock, kin".

The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, and hence different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. In the hierarchy of the binomial classification system, genus comes above species and below family.

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