Biological Classification

Biological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method of scientific taxonomy used to group and categorize organisms into groups such as genus or species. These groups are known as taxa (singular: taxon).

Modern biological classification has its root in the work of Carolus Linnaeus, who grouped species according to shared physical characteristics. These groupings have since been revised to improve consistency with the Darwinian principle of common descent. With the introduction of the cladistic method in the late 20th century, phylogenetic taxonomy in which organisms are grouped based purely on inferred evolutionary relatedness, ignoring morphological similarity, has become common in some areas of biology. Molecular phylogenetics, which uses DNA sequences as data, has also driven many recent revisions and is likely to continue doing so. Biological classification belongs to the science of biological systematics.