NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Science Chapter 12 .7.1 The hierarchical nature of classification — In-text Questions
Book page 24412 Updated on2026-09-08
Q1.
Observe and analyse Fig. 12.17. What do you infer?
Answer
Classification is a nested hierarchy: it starts from very broad groups and moves to smaller, more specific ones, and at each lower level the organisms share more features in common. Every lower group lies entirely inside the group above it.
Kingdom → Phylum → Class → Order → Family → Genus → Species members decrease shared features increase
Fig. 12.17 read as nested boxes: each level sits entirely inside the one above, and every step down means fewer members but more features shared.
The inference, in the chapter's own image: this arrangement works like an address. A house address narrows from country to state to district to street to house number — each step is inside the last, and by the end exactly one place is named. In the same way, Animalia → Chordata → Vertebrata → Mammalia → Carnivora → Felidae → Panthera → P. tigris narrows from millions of animals to one species. This lets scientists identify, compare and study organisms accurately, and understand how they are related.
Second inference — the two pyramids have the same shape. A tiger and a pea plant are as different as two organisms can be, yet both are filed through exactly seven levels. The scheme is universal: it is the same ladder applied to all of life, which is what makes comparison between distant groups possible at all.