Question

Which of the following is less general in characters as compared to genus?
A) Species
B) Family
C) Class
D) Division

Answer 1

Hint: First thing that should come into notice while solving this question is that general characters are different from similar characters. Similar characters refer to the similarity in characters whereas general characters refer to the common characters that a group has.

Complete answer:
The arrangement of various groups in a definite order, from higher to lower categories is known as a taxonomic hierarchy. The aim of this taxonomic study is to assign organisms an appropriate place in a systematic framework of classification.

From the given question, we can well understand that it is talking about taxonomic hierarchy. The categories involved are arranged in the following way-
- Kingdom
- Phylum or division
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species

It is arranged in a higher to lower category i.e. kingdom being the highest category and species being the lowest. One interesting concept about this hierarchy is that when we go lower to higher the similarities decreases however, the general characters increases. This means the one at the lowest of the hierarchy will have the least general character whereas the one at the top will have the most general character.

From the above-given hierarchy with respect to genus, we can easily tell that species being at the lowest will show the least general characters. Therefore the correct answer option (A).

Note:
- Species is the basic unit of taxonomy. The modern concept of species is the biological species concept, which was introduced by Ernst Mayr.
- Genus is the first higher category above the species level. It is a group of species, which are related and have fewer characters in common as compared to species.
- In the case of plants we use the category division instead of phylum whereas the others remain the same.