Genus

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"Genera" redirects here. For the operating system, see Genera (operating system).
For other uses, see Genus (disambiguation).
The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. A family
contains one or more genera. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.

A genus (/'d?i?n?s/, pl. genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological

classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of
biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial
nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for
each species within the genus.

E.g. Felis catus and Felis silvestris are two species within the genus Felis.
Felis is a genus within the family Felidae.

The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist. The standards for genus

classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce
different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used,
however,[1] including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these
three criteria to be descriptively useful:

monophyly all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e.

phylogenetic analysis should clearly demonstrate both monophyly and validity as a
separate lineage[2]).
reasonable compactness a genus should not be expanded needlessly; and
distinctness with respect to evolutionarily relevant criteria, i.e. ecology,
morphology, or biogeography; DNA sequences are a consequence rather than a
condition of diverging evolutionary lineages except in cases where they directly
inhibit gene flow (e.g. postzygotic barriers).

Moreover, genera should be composed of phylogenetic units of the same kind as other
(analogous) genera.[3]

Contents

1 Name
2 Use
2.1 Binomial nomenclature
2.2 Type
2.3 Identical names (synonyms and homonyms)
2.4 Higher classifications
3 Size
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
7 External links

Name

The term comes from the Latin genus ("origin; type; group; race"),[4] a noun form
cognate with gignere ("to bear; to give birth to"). Linnaeus popularized its use in
his 1753 Species Plantarum, but the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
(16561708) is considered "the founder of the modern concept of genera".[5]

Use

The scientific name of a genus may be called the generic name or generic epithet:
it is always capitalized. It plays a pivotal role in binomial nomenclature, the
system of naming organisms.
Binomial nomenclature
Main articles: Binomial nomenclature, Trinomen, and Infraspecific names

The rules for the scientific names of organisms are laid down in the Nomenclature
Codes, which are employed by the speakers of all languages, giving each species a
single unique Latinate name. The standard way of scientifically describing species
and other lower-ranked taxa is by binomial nomenclature. The generic name forms its
first half. For example, the gray wolf's binomial name is Canis lupus, with Canis
(Lat. "dog") being the generic name shared by the wolf's close relatives and lupus
(Lat. "wolf") being the specific name particular to the wolf. The specific name is
written in lower-case and may be followed by subspecies names in zoology or a
variety of infraspecific names in botany. Especially with these longer names, when
the generic name is known from context, it is typically shortened to its initial
letter.

Because animals are typically only grouped within subspecies, it is simply written
as a trinomen with a third name. For example, because dogs are still so similar to
wolves as to form part of their species but so distinct as to require separate
treatment, they are described as C. lupus familiaris (Lat. "domestic"), while the
"wolves" form many distinct subspecies, including the common wolf (C. lupus lupus)
and the dingo (C. lupus dingo). Dog breeds, meanwhile, are not scientifically
distinguished.

There are several divisions of plant species and therefore their infraspecific
names generally include contractions explaining the relation. For example, the
genus Hibiscus (Lat. "marshmallow") includes hundreds of other species apart from
the Rose of Sharon or common garden hibiscus (H. syriacus, from Lat. "Syrian").
Rose of Sharon doesn't have subspecies but has cultivars that carry desired traits,
such as the bright white H. syriaca 'Diana'.[6] "Hawaiian hibiscus", meanwhile,
includes several separate species. Since not all botanists agree on the divisions
or names between species, it is common to specify the source of the name using
author abbreviations. For example, H. arnottianus A.Gray was first specified in a
work by Asa Gray.[7] Sister Roe identified an immaculate white hibiscus on Molokai
as a separate species,[8] but D.M. Bates later reclassified it as a subspecies of
H. arnottianus.[9] It thus now appears as H. arnottianus ssp. immaculatus or as H.
arnottianus A.Gray subsp. immaculatus (M.J.Roe) D.M.Bates. When it is considered a
mere variety of H. arnottianus, it is written H. arnottianus var. immaculatus.
Type
See also: type genus, type species, and type specimen

Each genus should have a designated type, although in practice there is a backlog
of older names without one. In zoology, this is the type species and the generic
name is permanently associated with the type specimen of its type species. Should
the specimen turn out to be assignable to another genus, the generic name linked to
it becomes a junior synonym and the remaining taxa in the former genus need to be
reassessed.
Identical names (synonyms and homonyms)

Within the same kingdom one generic name can apply to only one genus. However, many
names have been assigned (usually unintentionally) to two or more different genera.
For example, the platypus belongs to the genus Ornithorhynchus although George Shaw
named it Platypus in 1799 (these two names are thus synonyms). However, the name
Platypus had already been given to a group of ambrosia beetles by Johann Friedrich
Wilhelm Herbst in 1793. A name that means two different things is a homonym. Since
beetles and platypuses are both members of the kingdom Animalia, the name could not
be used for both. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published the replacement name
Ornithorhynchus in 1800.
However, a genus in one kingdom is allowed to bear a scientific name that is in use
as a generic name (or the name of a taxon in another rank) in a kingdom that is
governed by a different nomenclature code. Names with the same form but applying to
different taxa are called "homonyms". Although this is discouraged by both the
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of
Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, there are some five thousand such names
in use in more than one kingdom. For instance,

Anura is the name of the order of frogs but also is the name of a non-current
genus of plants;
Aotus is the generic name of both golden peas and night monkeys;
Oenanthe is the generic name of both wheatears and water dropworts;
Prunella is the generic name of both accentors and self-heal; and
Proboscidea is the order of elephants and the genus of devil's claws.
The name of the genus Paramecia (an extinct red algae) is also the plural of
the name of the genus Paramecium (which is in the SAR supergroup), which can also
lead to confusion.

A list of generic homonyms has been compiled by the Interim Register of Marine and
Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG)[10]
Higher classifications

The type genus forms the base for higher taxonomic ranks, such as the family name
Canidae ("Canids") based on Canis. However, this does not typically ascend more
than one or two levels: the order to which dogs and wolves belong is Carnivora
("Carnivores").
Size
Number of reptile genera with a given number of species. Most genera have only one
or a few species but a few may have hundreds. Based on data from the Reptile
Database (as of May 2015).

The number of species in genera varies considerably among taxonomic groups. For
instance, among (non-avian) reptiles, which have about 1180 genera, the most (>300)
have only 1 species, ~360 have between 2 and 4 species, 260 have 5-10 species, ~200
have 11-50 species, and only 27 genera have more than 50 species (see figure).[11]
However, some insect genera such as the bee genera Lasioglossum and Andrena have
over 1000 species each.

Which species are assigned to a genus is somewhat arbitrary. Although all species
within a genus are supposed to be "similar" there are no objective criteria for
grouping species into genera. There is much debate among zoologists whether large,
species-rich genera should be maintained, as it is extremely difficult to come up
with identification keys or even character sets that distinguish all species.
Hence, many taxonomists argue in favor of breaking down large genera. For instance,
the lizard genus Anolis has been suggested to be broken down into 8 or so different
genera which would bring its ~400 species to smaller, more manageable subsets.[12]
See also

List of the largest genera of flowering plants

Genusdifferentia definition

References

Gill, F. B.; Slikas, B.; Sheldon, F. H. (2005). "Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae):

II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b
gene". Auk. 122 (1): 121143. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2.
De la Maza-Benignos, M. , Lozano-Vilano, M.L., & Garca-Ramrez, M. E. (2015).
Response paper: Morphometric article by Meja et al. 2015 alluding genera
Herichthys and Nosferatu displays serious inconsistencies. Neotropical Ichthyology,
13(4), 673-676.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1679-
62252015000400673&script=sci_arttext
De la Maza-Benignos, M., Lozano-Vilano, M. L., & Garca-Ramrez, M. E. (2015).
Response paper: Morphometric article by Meja et al. 2015 alluding genera
Herichthys and Nosferatu displays serious inconsistencies. Neotropical Ichthyology,
13(4), 673-676.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1679-
62252015000400673&script=sci_arttext
Merriam Webster Dictionary
Stuessy, T. F. (2009). Plant Taxonomy: The Systematic Evaluation of Comparative
Data (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780231147125.
"Hibiscus syriacus 'Diana'", Plants, Royal Horticultural Society, 2015, retrieved 7
October 2015.
United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842
under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., Vol. XV: Botany, Pt. I, Philadelphia,
1854.
Roe, Margaret James (1961), "A Taxonomic Study of the Indigenous Hawaiian Species
of the Genus Hibiscus (Malvaceae)" (PDF), Pacific Science, Vol. 15, No. 1.
Bates, David Martin (1989), Occasional Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
of Polynesian Ethology and Natural History, Vol. 29, No. 104.
"IRMNG - Homonyms". www.irmng.org. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
The Reptile Database

Nicholson, K. E.; B. I. Crother, C. Guyer & J.M. Savage (2012) It is time for a
new classification of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Zootaxa 3477: 1108

External links

Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG)

External links

Nomenclator Zoologicus: Index of all genus and subgenus names in zoological

nomenclature from 1758 to 2004.
Fauna Europaea Database for Taxonomy

[hide]

v t e

Taxonomic ranks

Domain/Superkingdom
Kingdom
Subkingdom
Infrakingdom/Branch

Superphylum/Superdivision
Phylum/Division
Subphylum
Infraphylum
Microphylum

Superclass
Class
 Subclass
Infraclass
Parvclass

Legion
Cohort

Magnorder
Superorder
Order
Suborder
Infraorder
Parvorder

Section (zoo.)
Superfamily
Family
Subfamily

Supertribe
Tribe
Subtribe

Genus
Subgenus
Section (bot.)
Series (bot.)

Species
Subspecies
Variety
Form

Categories:

GeneraBotanical nomenclaturePlant taxonomyZoological nomenclatureBacterial

nomenclature

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