The Importance Of Taxonomy

Taxonomy is a branch of science that is concerned with the classification of living and extinct organisms. It arranges them in hierarchies of superior and subordinate groups. (Oxforddictionaries.com, (2014), Encyclopaedia Britannica, (2014)). The classification of organisms is extremely important due to the existing diverse range of life. Many scientists classify these organisms to help establish organisation in order to study them more proficiently. It also allows relationships between organisms to be identified and investigated. Without these systems the evolution of the organisms and its history cannot be tracked. The first classification system identified was created by Aristotle, a Greek philosopher born in 384BC. This classification system divided organisms into two basic groupings; plants and animals (Utahscience. (2012)). His system however was not without faults and over time new systems were produced in an attempt to revolutionise the classification system. Furthermore, these modern systems were heavily influenced by the evolutionary theory of natural selection identified by Charles Darwin. Today, the classification system is based off Carol Linnaeus’s two kingdom system which is otherwise known as the binomial system (Eclp.com.na. (2013). Due to varied opinions between scientists, it is hard to classify an organism to one particular catalogue and thus many use alternate versions of the current classification system. It is very important to implement a universal model in order to keep track of organisms, their relationship with other organisms and the environment and their history. To determine which model should be implemented universally the strengths and limitations of each model must be thoroughly evaluated. Moreove...

... middle of paper ...

...ange of life that exists today. The taxonomic system has evolved over time, from Aristotle’s basic plant and animal system to Linnaeus binomial system showcasing how technology has revolutionised it, identifies new organisms and reclassifies others. Other systems were identified over time including Theophrastus’ plant classification key, the three, four, five and six kingdom systems as well as cladistic analysis, phenetics and evolutionary systematics. It has been emphasised that a universal system must be implemented to help avoid confusion between scientists and organise research efficiently. The model that would be best to implement universally would be cladistics analysis as it combines both phylogeny and evolution of morphological features. As no model can be perfect, cladistics’ analysis should interweave the binomial system to create a more efficient model.