Archive for the 'Taxonomy' Category

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

International code of Zoological Nomenclature is huge documents of great importance to preserve the given names of different animals and to increase their universality and uniqueness. It includes several clauses and their sub-divisions. It was internationally accepted at the 5th Conference of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, held in Berlin in 1910. The modern [...]

Aim and Tasks of a Taxonomist

The primary aim of a taxonomist must be the construction of classes of living things about which scientifically useful inductive generalisations can be made. Many workers have enumerated various aims and tasks of a taxonomists. For the sake of convenience to readers, there are summarised below. 1. To catalogue the diversity of life on earth [...]

Stages in Taxonomy

It is now well-known that taxonomy of a given group passes through several stages. These stages are referred to as alpha (analytical phase), beta (synthetic phase), and gamma (biological phase) taxonomy. Alpha taxonomy is the level at which the species are characterised and named; beta taxonomy refers to the arrangement of the species into a [...]

Taxonomy and Systematics

The word taxonomy is derived from the Greek words taxis (= arrangement) and numos (=law). It was first coined by A.P. de Candolle, a Professor of Montpellier University in France, in his Botany treatise in 1813, as a French Word “Taxononomie”, evidently formed on the analogue of astronomie, economie, agronomie and other similar words. The [...]

what is polytypic species?

A species population which consists of two or more subspecies is known as a polytypic species. It was first defined by Huxley (1940). Such species are composed of allopatric or allochronic populations that differ from one another.