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The Broad Strokes
The four highest levels of taxonomy are the kingdom, phylum, class and order. These are the "broad strokes," which break down the vast number of living organisms into logical subdivisions. Bears belong to the kingdom of "animalia," or animals; and the phylum called chordata, creatures which at some stage in their life cycle have a hollow nerve cord and a tail. Like humans bears belong to the class of mammals, creatures who suckle their young on milk. Finally, although they are cheerfully omnivorous in practice, bears are placed among the order of carnivores.
Family
In the fifth level of taxonomy, the family, you begin to come to some detail. Bears belong to the group called ursidae, which is made up of bears and bearlike creatures. The American black bear belongs to a subfamily, the ursinae, which includes all bears except the giant panda and spectacled bear.
Genus
Within the ursinae, there are again divisions by genus. The sloth bear of Sri Lanka and sun bear of Borneo are evolutionary branches from the rest of the bears, due to their locations in isolated island habitats. They are considered to be different enough from other bears to justify each being placed in a category of its own. The world's remaining bears are all members of the genus Ursus.
Species
The genus Ursus comprises all the world's remaining bear species, which vary in many ways but are all related closely in evolutionary terms. The American black bear is Ursus Americanus, for example. All other North American bears are species of Ursus as well, including the grizzly bear, Ursus arctus horribilis; and the polar bear, Ursus maritimus maritimus.