Botany · Ch 5 — Taxonomy and Systematic Botany
Taxonomy and Systematics
5.1
Taxonomy and Systematics
Every human being classifies things - food, clothes, books - from the cradle to the grave, but as formal disciplines Taxonomy and Systematics are distinct even though people often use the two words as if they meant the same thing.
The word 'taxonomy' comes from the Greek taxis (arrangement) and nomos (rules/laws). Davis and Heywood (1963) defined it as 'the science dealing with the study of classification including the bases, principles, rules and procedures.' In short, taxonomy is the discipline of sorting organisms into taxa and governs how they are named, described, identified and preserved as specimens: Classification + Nomenclature = Taxonomy. …
Table 5.1Differences between Taxonomy and Systematics
| Taxonomy | Systematics |
|---|---|
| Discipline of classifying organisms into taxa | Broad field of biology that studies the diversification of species |
| Governs the practices of naming, describing, identifying and specimen preservation | Governs the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationship in addition to taxonomy |