Taxonomy and Systematics
Taxonomy is a process of classification and Systematics is a branch of taxonomy. Taxonomy and Systematics are two important topics in Biology. Here, I have explained the topic ” Diversity in the Living World” in which Taxonomy and Systematics are included.
For the better understanding of Taxonomy and Systematics first of all we have to know that what is Biodiversity?
BIODIVERSITY
From the term ‘Biodiversity‘, it is easily understood that the diversity of ‘bio‘ means ‘Life‘ present in this world is called Biodiversity. In this huge world all the organisms are not similer. Organisms from every species are different morphologically, Behaviorally & Reproductively.
As per defination, The number & types of organisms present on earth is called Biodiversity. From this, 1.7 to 1.8 million species are known and described.
NOMENCLATURE
From the huge number & types of organisms, we are generally known some of them living in our surroundings. We are usually called them by their “Local Name“. But these local names are varied at different places. Sometimes the local name are matched for different organisms at different place. So a need is arisen to standarise the naming of living organisms so that a perticuler organism is known by a unique name all over the world. This process is termed as Nomenclature.
In this process, number of scientists have established methodologies to assign a scientific name to each known organism. For prokaryotes, the procdure is termed as ‘ICNP‘ (International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes) which formerly known as ‘ICNB‘ (International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria). ‘ICBN’ (International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) deals with the naming of Plants. ‘ICZN’ (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) provide the scientific name of animals.
Universally accepted principles would be followed to provide a scientific name to a known organism. This naming system is issued by Carolus Linnaeus. The rules under this system are —
- Scientific names are generally created in Latin or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin. To write a scientific name, it turns into italics.
- Each scientific name has two components — one is Generic name and another is specific epithet. In a Scientific/Biologcal name, the first word represents the genus and the second word indicate its species. Hence it is known as “Binomial Nomenclature” and the father of Binomial Nomenclature is “Carolus Linnaeus“.
- The biological name are separately underlined when it is writing with hand and it is printed in italic.
- The first letter of the genus must be capitalized while all the letters of specific epithet would be written in small letter. For example, Biological name of mango is Mangifera indica. Here ‘Mangifera‘ represent its genus which starts with a capital letter where ‘indica ‘ is the specific epithet of mango, starts with a small letter.
In Binomial Nomenclature, an update was included in later. In a scientific name, name of author should be include after the specific epithet in an abbreviated form. Now the updated biological name of mango is Mangifera indica Linn. It means Linnaeus first described this species.
Anyway, The prime requirement to study a organism is proper description. Naming of a organism is feasible When we able to describe the organism correctly. This is called Identification.
Here we observe the identifying characteristics of a organism and describe the organism by those characters. but in this way we can not study all the organisms. To solve the complexity we should to follow a process where all the known organisms are grouped into various categories as per convenience. This is called Classification. The process of classification is Taxonomy and Systematics as a branch, maintain the common ancestry.
TAXONOMY
From the Taxonomy and Systematics, Taxonomy is a process of classification by which all the organisms can be classified into different taxa, based on characteristics. ‘Taxa‘ is the scientific term of categories which can indicate different level of category of a organism.
The term ‘Taxonomy’ proposed by A.P. de. Candolle. The four processes — Characterisation, Identification, Classification and Nomenclature are basic to taxonomy.
There are also four essentiality which forms the basis of morden taxonomic sttudies. These are Celluler structure, Internal and External structure, Development processs and Ecological status.
SYSTEMATICS
From the Taxonomy and Systematics, Systematics is a branch of taxonomy where we study about Evolutionary relationship (Phylogeny) among different organisms. The term ‘Systematics’ is derived from the latin word ‘systema‘ means “systematic arrangement of organisms“.
Conclusion
In this topic “Taxonomy and Systematics”, Taxonomy is the main process by which we able to study the diversity of all known organisms in the Living world. Here we learn about Nomenclature, Identification & Classification to understand Taxonomy easily. At the end we have known about Systematics, an extension of taxonomy.