<P> Taxonomy ( from Ancient Greek τάξις ( taxis ) , meaning ' arrangement ' , and - νομία ( - nomia ) , meaning ' method ' ) is the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics . Organisms are grouped together into taxa ( singular : taxon ) and these groups are given a taxonomic rank ; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank , thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy . The principal ranks in modern use are domain , kingdom , phylum ( division is sometimes used in botany in place of phylum ) , class , order , family , genus and species . The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the father of taxonomy , as he developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorization of organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms . </P>
who discovered one of the first taxonomic classification schemes
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus