Systema Naturae or the outline of living world classification

Alexey B. Shipunov

Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

Summary

Here we present the short outline of the classification of living things (to the level of classes), given with two main goals: to provide a compact, synthetic overview of the biological diversity; and to supply users with up-todate information of latest taxonomic achievements. The latter is especially important in the recent epoch of “molecular revolution” in the taxonomy.

Key words:  living organisms classification, kingdoms, phyla, classes