Family

Family, in zoological classification, means an alliance of nearly related genera. Individual, species, genus, family, order, class, and phylum are the common categories of classification in ascending order, with intermediate ranks, such as sub-genns, sub-order, sub-family, section, and sub-phylum. Thus, the dolphin family—Delphinidae—includes the genera Delphinus or Dolphin, Monodon or Narwhal, Delphinapterus or Beluga, Phocæna or Porpoise, Orca or Grampus, &c., and is itself included in the order Cetacea, in the class Mammalia, in the phylum Vertebrata. See GENUS, SPECIES, TAXONOMY, ZOOLOGY.