What it does
Biologists sort living things into groups inside groups, called ranks: kingdom, phylum (called division for plants), class, order, family, genus and species. Each species has a two-part scientific name, its binomial name, made of its genus and its species word, such as Panthera tigris for the tiger.
This page has three parts:
- Walk the tree: start at Whittaker’s five kingdoms (Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia) and tap a group to go one rank down, until you reach a species and see all seven of its ranks. The breadcrumbs at the top take you back up.
- Compare two living things: choose two species and see their ranks side by side. Shared ranks are shaded, and the page says the lowest rank they share. A tiger and a lion share everything down to the genus Panthera; a tiger and a human part ways at the order.
- Check a binomial name: type a scientific name in any capitals and the page writes it correctly, gives the short form (P. tigris), and lists what was wrong.
It follows the Class 9 science chapter Patterns in Life: Diversity and Classification and the Class 11 biology chapter The Living World. To name an animal from its features with yes/no questions, try dichotomous key explorer, and to look inside the cells that set the kingdoms apart, open cell explorer.
How to use it
- In Walk the tree, tap a kingdom, then keep tapping groups. The small number under each group is how many of this page’s species are in it.
- In Compare, pick a first and a second living thing. Read the shaded rows and the sentence below the table.
- In Check a binomial name, type a name. Try “homo Sapiens” or “Panthera tigris tigris”.
- Answer the four questions at the bottom to check yourself.
Worked example
Compare the potato and the brinjal. Both are Plantae, Angiospermae, Dicotyledonae, order Solanales, family Solanaceae and genus Solanum. They differ only at the species: Solanum tuberosum and Solanum melongena. So they are close relatives, which is why their flowers look so alike. Now compare the potato and wheat: they share only the kingdom and division, then split at class (dicot against monocot).
Writing scientific names
- Two words: the genus, then the species word.
- The genus starts with a capital letter; the species word is all small letters.
- Print it in italics; when handwritten, underline each word separately.
- After the first full use, the genus may be shortened to its first letter: E. coli.
- A third small word names a subspecies (Panthera tigris tigris); a name after it in capitals is the person who first described it, and is not in italics.
FAQs
Why do some books say Polemoniales for potato? Older classifications used that order; Solanales is the name used today. The page notes this.
Are there really only five kingdoms? Five is the school model. Many scientists now use three domains (Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya) above the kingdoms, and split Monera and Protista further.
Is anything stored? No. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you type leaves your device.
Where the numbers come from
- Whittaker's five kingdoms, the seven main ranks and the binomial naming rules are standard school biology. The ranks of each species are widely published general facts; the selection of species and all text were written for fibub.
Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.
Last updated 2026-11-09.