Biology
In the taxonomical structure "genus → species", a species is described as sui generis if its genus was created to classify it (i.e. its exceptional uniqueness at the time of classification necessitated the creation of a new genus, the sole member of which was initially the sui generis species). A species that is the lone extant member of its genus (e.g. the Homo genus) is not necessarily sui generis: extinction processes may have eliminated any number of species for which the genus was created.
Read more about this topic: Sui Generis
Famous quotes containing the word biology:
“Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.”
—Rachel Carson (1907–1964)