Which of the following options lists taxonomic categories in the correct order from most specific to most general?

A) genus, family, class, order, phylum

B) genus, phylum, family, order, class

C) genus, family, order, class, phylum

D) family, genus, order, phylum, class

E) family, genus, class, order, phylum

The correct answer is - C) genus, family, order, class, phylum.

All living organisms have taxonomic categorization in order for their classification and understanding. There's multiple taxonomic categories including kingdom, phylum, class, order, suborder, family, subfamily, genus, species, with the kingdom being the least specific and the species being the most specific.

In our example we have the genus as most specific (second most specific), than comes the family (fourth most specific), order (sixth most specific), class (seventh most specific), and the phylum (eighth most specific).

We can take the clouded leopard and its taxonomic categorization as an example (from least to most specific):

Kingdom - Animalia

Phylum - Chordata

Class - Mammalia

Order - Carnivora

Suborder - Feliformia

Family - Felidae

Subfamily - Pantherinae

Genus - Neofelis

Species - Neofelis nebulosa