To find the complete taxonomic lineage for an organism, access the organism's record in the Taxonomy database (example). Locate the lineage information and click on the Lineage link to toggle between the full and abbreviated lineage. You can link to Taxonomy records from various NCBI database records by clicking on the organism name links that generally lead to the corresponding entries in the Taxonomy database.
You can also search the Taxonomy database directly:
- Select the Taxonomy database from the All Databases search menu.
- Enter your search terms as one of these:
- the scientific (formal) Genus species name (for example: Bombyx mori for domestic silkworm)
- an accepted common name for the species (for example: silk moth)
- the scientific (formal) name for a broader taxonomic unit (for example: Lepidoptera)
- an accepted common name for a broader taxonomic unit in its plural form (for example: moths)
- Access the lineage information in the record (if your search retrieves a single record) or click on the desired organism name on the search results page (if your search retrieves more than one record).