diff --git a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/DBSQL/MetaContainer.pm b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/DBSQL/MetaContainer.pm
index ccbe61232c17dce83f0bd33e68d8e0333a30693b..51c41c4faeb8243e8219b0b271c3d469d4438714 100644
--- a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/DBSQL/MetaContainer.pm
+++ b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/DBSQL/MetaContainer.pm
@@ -262,8 +262,9 @@ sub get_genebuild {
 sub get_classification {
   my ($self) = @_;
   my $classification = $self->list_value_by_key('species.classification');
-  splice(@{$classification}, 0, 2); # remove the sapiens, Homo from the backing array
-  return $classification;
+  my $copy = [@{$classification}];
+  splice(@{$copy}, 0, 1); # remove the Homo sapiens
+  return $copy;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/modules/t/metaContainer.t b/modules/t/metaContainer.t
index d909702e8076bd1c4bb59e95f9e7df97736a61ad..f392648503d1966f1d6a29496335fb543fa7c9cd 100644
--- a/modules/t/metaContainer.t
+++ b/modules/t/metaContainer.t
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ $mc->store_key_value('species.division',$divname);
 $div = $mc->get_division();
 ok($div eq $divname);
 
+#
+# classification 
+#
+my $classification = [ qw/Hominidae Catarrhini Primates Eutheria Mammalia Vertebrata Chordata Metazoa Eukaryota/ ];
+is_deeply($mc->get_classification(), $classification, 'Checking classification as expected');
+
 #
 # Testing get_Species()
 #
diff --git a/modules/t/test-genome-DBs/homo_sapiens/core/meta.txt b/modules/t/test-genome-DBs/homo_sapiens/core/meta.txt
index 37fe516d07b5de756f1d73bc2a96a42e87dc546f..0b6bfa72296ef0f184bcbd14f568781f48de78b7 100644
--- a/modules/t/test-genome-DBs/homo_sapiens/core/meta.txt
+++ b/modules/t/test-genome-DBs/homo_sapiens/core/meta.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 27	1	species.classification	Hominidae
 34	1	species.classification	Metazoa
 35	1	species.classification	Eukaryota
+26	1	species.classification	Homo sapiens
 36	1	species.common_name	Human
 70	1	species.scientific_name	Homo sapiens
 3	1	species.taxonomy_id	9606