Taxonomy ‘taxis’ ‘nomos’ arrangement law

Lecture 15.
Relationship among systematics,
taxonomy, zoological classification
and nomenclature
1

TAXONOMY
‘taxis’
‘nomos’
arrangement
law
• Taxonomy is the law of arrangement of different organisms
• First AP. deCandolle (1813) - Theory of plant classification
Different definitions:
• Simpson (1961) : ‘It is the theoretical study of classification, including its bases, principles, procedures and rules’
2

Blackwelder (1967):
‘The day today practice of dealing with different kinds of organisms. It includes:
a) Collection, handling and identification
b) Publication of data
c) Study of literature
d) Analysis of variations
3

• Mayr (1969): ‘The theory and practice of classifying organisms Christoffersen (1995): ‘The practice of recognizing, naming and ordering taxa into a system of words consistent with any kind of relationships among taxa that the investigator has discovered in nature Taxonomy thus becomes the most basic activity in biology, dealing exclusively with the discovery, ordering and communication of patterns of biological taxa).
HOWEVER, SIMPSON’S (1961) DEF. - APPROPRIATE &
WIDELY USED
4

SYSTEMATICS
‘Systema’
applied to systems of classification
• Linnaeus in ‘Systema Naturae’ (4
th
edition) in 1735
• Blackwelder & Boyden (1952):