Classification

Domain:Eukarya
    Kingdom: Animalia                                
        Phylum: Chordata                                   
                  Class: Aves
                          Order: Struthioniformes
                                 Family: Struthionidae         
                                       Genus: Struthio                                                                                                       
                                               Species: Struthio camelus  

Domain: Eukarya
Struthio camelus  is an organism in the domain called Eukarya.  Eukarya is a large branch of organisms that came from the first prokaryotic organisms over 1.7 billion years ago!  To be in this domain, organisms must have eukaryotic cells.  The prefix “eu-“  means “true” and the suffix “karya” means nucleus.  So organisms must contain a true nucleus, as well as other membrane bound cells.

Kingdom: Animalia
 The kingdom Animalia is one of four Kingdoms in the Domain Eukarya.  There are several ways in which this Kingdom is set apart from the other three Kingdoms of Plantae, Fungi, and Protista.  Members of Kingdom  Animalia are multicellular, heterotrophic organisms that aquire food by ingestion. 

Phylum: Chordata
 This phylum is a broad category derived from the Kingdom Animalia.  All the members of this Phlum possess a dorsal hollow nerve chord, a notochord, pharyngeal gill slits, and a muscular tail that extends beyond the anus at some point during development.

Class: Aves
Class Aves has many distinct characteristics.  The main one being that members have evolved parts specializing in flight  (which include hollow, lite, strong bones and powerful muscles) but most importantly possessing feathers.     

Order: Struthioniformes
This order is synonymous with that of the Order Ratite.  To be categorized in this order, the birds must be flightless.  Specifically to the Ratites, they are lacking a keel on their sternum.  Since they do not have this key part to enable wing muscles to fly, they are lacking the ability to fly even if they were to develop suitable wings.

Family: Struthionidae  
The ostrich has long legs and necks, and are the largest birds in the world!  They have two legs, each containing two toes.   One toe has a large claw,  and the other toe is usually without a claw.

Genus: Struthio
Even though the ostrich is a flightless bird, they still have large feathered wings.  Male and female colorings are different.

Species: Struthio camelus
There are only four living subspecies of the ostrich.  All naturally from Africa.  They differ in skin tones as well as other key factors.    

Phylogenetic trees that show how Struthio camelus relates to other organisms.

This phylogenetic tree is based on molecular data formed by comparing ribosomal genes, Hox genes, protein-coding genes, and mitochondrial genes (Campbell, et al. 8th ed.)  This tree shows the closest relatives of the Phylum Chordata, which the ostrich is classified in.  We are also among this phylum, it is so interesting to see how we are related to other organisms that one would think we have nothing in common with. 

The above phylogenetic tree is based on morphological data by comparing the evolution of the different Chordates.  The study of morphology is dealing with the form and structure of different organisms, and their specific structures and features The amount of species in this tree is much greater, but I have compacted the information, only showing some of the various groups of Aves. Each group has multiple species within them, making the Phylum Chordata very large.  The genus Struthio starts to get specific, and leads to having only Struthio camelus.  The colors of the chart are only for visual appeal, they do not have any scientific meaning behind them.

 

After reading about the scientific classifications about the ostrich, check out where you can find these big birds in nature by checking out their habitat!