Taxonomy

Outline

Artificial vs. natural taxonomies

artificial -- based on similar characteristics

natural -- based on evolutionary relatedness: phylogeny

The history of taxonomic systems

ancient and Middle Ages

Gaspard Bauhin and the idea of the genus

the contributions of Carolus Linnaeus

binomial nomenclature

a hierarchy of taxonomical groups

Current efforts at a natural taxonomy

fossil evidence for relatedness -- similarities between extinct and extant species

similarities among extant species

problems with homology and homoplasy

information from molecular biology

ribosomal RNA

Vocabulary

click here to go to taxonomy vocabulary