In this video, we're going to begin our introduction to taxonomy. Taxonomy is defined as the branch of science that classifies, identifies, and names all living organisms. There are actually 8 categories used to classify all life. Notice that in our image shown below, we present all 8 categories used to classify all living organisms from the most inclusive category on the far left, which is the domain, through to the least inclusive category of species on the right. The species only includes one single type of organism. The 8 categories of life, from most inclusive to least inclusive, are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.

One way to remember the 8 categories that classify all living organisms from most inclusive to least inclusive is by using this mnemonic device: "Dear King Philip came over for great soup." Each first letter of these categories corresponds to a word in the mnemonic, thus helping us remember the sequence from most inclusive to least inclusive. Pictured here is an image of "King Philip" who came over for some great soup. If you can recall "Dear King Philip came over for great soup," you'll be able to place these 8 categories in the correct order from most inclusive to least inclusive.

This concludes our brief introduction to taxonomy, and I'll see you guys in our next video.