What is the definition for Genus?

Question

i will pick best answer to whoever explains to me what it means the best!

Answer 1

It is a way to group animals. Animals are named and classified in a number of ways. Living organisms are broken down into 5 kingdoms (6 according to some) according to a system of naming them.

From most to least broad, they are, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

Genus is a category name that is given to every species in a group of species which are closely related to one another. Ideally the same generic name is given to species which are all descended from a common ancestor. In other words, a genus is a low-level taxonomic unit, used in the classification of living and fossil organisms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaean_taxonomy

Answer 2

A species is a group that can produce offspring.
A genus looks like they should but can't.

Species reproduce offspring that in turn produce more offspring, etc. If the parents produce mules (any infertile offspring) they are different species but they are likely to be in the same genus. Mules are not a prerequisite but are a good indicator that the parent's species are in the same genus. The problem comes with plants that can produce fertile offspring both between species and, occasionally, genera. The definition still works because the new offspring can’t breed with their parents. They are a new species. So for plants a species is a group that can produce fertile offspring that can still back-cross to their parents.
It is easier to talk about a group such as an entire genus such as Canis spp., than to list all the individuals like jackal, wolf, coyote, fox, & dog just as it is easier to say chair rather than list all possible members of the group every time we speak of them. So genus is the next logical grouping.
The modern genus is based using at least 3 criteria.
A common species ancestor, a distinct species type based on location, body type, or ecology as well as some reasonable limits to the size of the group. Cladists want to base it entirely on phylogeny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetics
After genus the classification is less precise. The ability to include or exclude a particular genus in a family is more nebulous. There are exceptions at every classification level. Now that we have large scale genome projects we have the ability to look at just how related organisms actually are but it is still difficult to draw precise lines between groups.
Panda phylogeny has asked "Is a panda a bear or a raccoon family member?"
Black & white Giant Pandas are members of the bear family with four species in the panda genus Ailuropoda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailuropoda
Red Pandas are now separate from Giant Pandas & placed in their own family, next to skunks, raccoons and weasels, with just two species.
All pandas still eat bamboo while residing in the order Carnivora. It is hard to use the new methods while keeping the old classifications.
http://www.tolweb.org/Carnivora/15971

Answer 3

ge·nus [ jnəss ] (plural gen·e·ra [ jénnərə ])


Definition:

1. biology set of closely related species: a category in the taxonomic classification of related organisms, comprising one or more species. Similar genera are grouped into families.


2. logic broader term for something: the more general class or kind in which something is included, e.g. the species "dog" is included in the genus "animal"


3. group: a class or group of any kind


[Mid-16th century. < Latin, "birth, race, kind"]

Answer 4

Nothing really. Taxonomic distinctions beyond species are pretty arbitrary, actually.

Answer 5

am absolutely sure ``its a nick name `4 that Overcoat yer wearing`??

Answer 6

genus means: look genus up in wikipedia bud..you dont need for us to tell u wat it is