Taxonomy (biology)
Taxonomy (biology)
Taxonomy (/tæksˈɒnəmi/; from Ancient Greek τάξις (taxis), meaning 'arrangement', and -νομία (-nomia), meaning 'method') is the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped together into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum (division is sometimes used in botany in place of phylum), class, order, family, genus, and species. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the founder of the current system of taxonomy, as he developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorizing organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.
Etymology
The word "taxonomy" was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique. It is derived from the Greek words "taxis", meaning arrangement or division, and "nomos", meaning law.
Related Terms
See Also
- List of systems of plant taxonomy
- Virus classification
- International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants
- International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Taxonomy (biology)
- Wikipedia's article - Taxonomy (biology)
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