Definitions
The exact definition of taxonomy varies slightly from source to source, but the core of the discipline remains: the conception, naming, and classification of organism groups. As points of reference, three recent textbook definitions are presented below:
- Theory and practice of grouping individuals into species, arranging species into larger groups, and giving those groups names, thus producing a classification;
- A field of science (and major component of systematics) that encompasses description, identification, nomenclature, and classification;
- The science of classification, in biology the arrangement of organisms into a classification.
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