bbc.co.uk navigation

What is a genus?

A genus is a scientific way of showing that species are very closed related to each other. In fact the first word of the species' scientific name is its genus. So for lions (Panthera leo), Panthera is the genus and tells us that they are closely related to tigers (Panthera tigris), because they share the name.

All Genera

Taxonomic Rank

In biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. Examples of taxonomic ranks are species, genus, family, and class. Each rank subsumes under it a number of less general categories. The rank of species, and specification of the genus to which the species belongs is basic, which means that it may not be necessary to specify ranks other than these.

  1. Life
  2. Kingdom
  3. Phylum
  4. Superclass
  5. Class
  8. Superorder
  9. Order
  10. Suborder
  11. Infraorder
  12. Superfamily
  13. Family
  14. Tribe
  15. Genus
  16. Species
  17. Subspecies

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.