Addis Ababa University

College of Natural and Computational Sciences

Unit 7

Taxonomy of organisms

Prepared By
Hintsete Woldedawit
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
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 What is Taxonomy?

 The word“ taxonomy” was coined by a Swiss naturalist, De

Candolle, (in French "taxonomie" ) in 1813.

 two Greek words: "taxis” and nomos" , arrangement and law,

respectively .
 “ the law of governing the classification or arrangement of
organisms into taxa”.

The branch of biology, that deals with the classification

of organism is called “ TAXONOMY”.

2
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 Cont….

• Taxonomy:
study principles of classification.
governs the rule application of classification, nomenclature and
identification of organisms.
 Taxonomy= is science of classification, identification,
nomenclature and making a system.
 Taxonomy = science of describing, naming and classifying an
individual into taxa.

 Taxa ( sing.Taxon)= a particular group within the

taxonomic system.

 Generally, taxonomy is the basic, most comprehensive and

ultimate for all biological
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sciences.
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Q. Is taxonomy is synonymous with systematic?

 Mostly, they are interrelated. But, taxonomy is as one part of

systematic
 Systematic is the scientific study of the kind, diversity and
phylogenic relationship among organisms.
 Classification + phylogeny =systematic

 Classification: is ordering/assignment of organisms into hierarchal

ranks or categories based on similarities and/or differences.
The scientific practice of classifying, naming and grouping of
living organism is called “ classification ”.
 Nomenclature: is the naming of groups of organisms based the rules
governing the application of the names. 4
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
Identification:
 is identifying of unknown organism or a specimen by reference to an already
existent classification. Or
 by referring an individual specimen to a previously classified and named system.

Identification – is practical use of classification criteria to distinguish certain

organism
from the other.

Q. Why Biologist study taxonomy? It is important for

scientists to:-
 organizing huge amounts of knowledge ( simplify works)

 make predictions and frame hypotheses about organisms

 places organisms into meaningful, useful groups, with precise names
( facilitating scientific communication).
5
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7.1 Early Attempts to Classify Organisms

 The development of modern taxonomy has not a linear path.

 Several early Greek and Roman philosophers enumerated organisms.

I. Early Greek and Roman philosopher
1. Aristotle (384–322 BC)-
 Organisms were first classified more than 2000 years ago by the Greek
philosopher, Aristotle.
 He was the first to classify all living organisms in to
plant and animal; called Father of biology and father of zoology.
 Aristotle looked at life was hierarchical and classified organisms, mainly
focused on history of Animals
 latterly, focused on biological changes and the diversity of life.
 He contributed most extensively to the development of the modern biology
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 2. Theophrastus (370-285 BC)

He was a keen observer, mainly plants.


the first taxonomist, who write down classification in a permanent and logical forms.
called the father of botany( by Linnaeus)


classified and described 480 kinds of plants based on their habits ( tree, shrub, under

shrub and herbs) by his book called "De Historia Plantarum"


He was typologists (artificial classification):-few or unique character use for classification.


According to Theophrastus classification system, every organisms has an invariant,

generalized or idealized pattern shared by all members of the group.

–Any given organisms is either A or not A.

–“excluded Middle”, there are no any intermediate organisms.

–incorporate the principle of the rules of dichotomy

–He12/29/21
proposed the term Annual, Biennial and Perennials.
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism 7
 3. Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.)

 Roman scholar and naturalist who wrote encyclopaedic books

termed Historia naturalis,
 he categorized plants in terms: horticultural practices, medicinal
uses, and timber use practices.
 In his classification, he used a similar classification as his
predecessors' errors.

4. Dioscorides (1st Century AD)

• He was a Greek physician
• studied and described about 600 medicinal plants in his book “De
Matera Medica” .
• He was interested on medicinal plants with their useful applications.

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 II. The Herbals (15-16th Centuries)
A. Caesalpinus (1519-1603)
 Wrote a book "De Plantis"
 illustrated about 1500 plant species.
 He classified plants based on definite morphological criteria (habit,
fruits, seeds, and ovaries and their position).

J. Bauhin (1554-1631) and G. Bauhin (1560-1624)

 They were brothers and Swiss botanist , worked separately but, line
on the same points
G. Bauhin produced the most important book of its time Pinax Theatri
Botanici (1623), Pinax = Register
• He listed in his book 6000 or so species

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 .
 He was notable for his:
- State of nomenclature, which existed to some extent
currently.
recognized genera and species as major taxonomic levels
used a binary nomenclature composed of the genus name
followed by a single specific
J. P. de Tournfort (1656-1708)
 carried out further Bauhin's promotion of the rank of genus with a
clear explanation.
 He had a clear idea of the genus.
 wrote a book called "Institutiones Rei Herbariae" (1700) and many
of his genera were later adopted by Linnaeus and are still in use
today.
 His system classified about 9000 species into 698 genera and 22
Classes (Orders).
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 III. Linnaeus Classifications
 Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), a Swede Taxonomist and Physician.
 the founder of modern taxonomy both of plants and animals.
 Developed the system of binomial nomenclature
 Wrote many book.

His system was first published in 1735 in Systema Naturae,

classified all known into animals, plants and minerals
Genera Plantarum (1737) and Species Plantarum (1753)
 was the father of modern taxonomy,
 his classification system was largely popular because of its
simplicity.
 he use artificial- classification system (depends only on few
characteristics like stamens and pistil number and position).
 Suggested that organism with the same structure grouped together11
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
 V. Post - Linnaean (Natural System)
 The foundation of modern families comes mainly from the works of
French taxonomists in the latter part of the 19th century, notably
 M. Adanson (1727-1806),
 De Candolle (1778-1841)
 A.A. de Jussieu (1748-1836), and
 J. de Lamarck (1744-1829),
 who never followed the sexual system of Linnaeus (artificial
system).
M. Adanson (1727-1806)
 Highly emphasis on great range of characters covering all
aspects of the organisms, not few.
 This is called an empirical approach.
 Adanson was a severe critic of Linnaeus' works.
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 De Candolle (1778-1841 Darwin (1859)- father of evolutoin.

 wrote a 17 volume books,  the evolutionary theory (The

 he first introduced the word Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, 1859)
taxonomy (French form Taxonomie).
 divided plants into two major groups:  Darwin’s theory – more accepted.
– Cellulares - the non-vascular plants  the evolutionary theory of
– Vasculares - the vascular plants Darwin, had little impat on
 Contributed in higher plant classification.
classification.  Post Darwin - evolutionary
J. de Lamarck (1744-1829), thinking was incorporated into
classification system
 is best known for his theory of  Become popular thinking
evolution, Lamarckism,
&came into picture, after
 Use inheritance of acquired
gene invention(genetics).
characters during lifetime, the
inherited character transfer to the Note: early classification systems
offspring. were broad and vague as indicated
by General
generic terms like animals 13
Biology , Taxonomy of organism
worms, sedges
 7.2 Modern Views of Classification (Schemes of Classification)
 modern classification system is based on the system developed by Swedish
botanist Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700s.
 the modern classification system classify diversified organisms depend up
on the combined evidence:
 morphology,
 ultrastructure and
 molecular phylogeny.

1. Artificial classification system

 It is monothetic i.e. possession of unique set of characters/features .
 only one or at most a few characters involved
Ranking is done subjectively
Weakness: describing, measuring and comparing the character states
usually are minimal.
 2. Natural classification system

 several to many selected characters involves to group organisms

 Then positively correlating character states of groups arranged in
simlar ranks - containing high information content.
 It is therefore polythetic :- organisms have the greatest number of
shared features/characters.
– Adanson and De Jussieu are good examples of natural
classification system.

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 3. Phyletic or Evolutionary classification system
 It is natural classifications that try to identify the evolutionary history
of natural groups.
 classification sequence starting with the most primitive character and
ending with the most advanced or derived character.
 Organism grouped based on evolutionary similarities and differences
 Each taxon recognized as a monophyletic i.e. they arise from a
common/a single ancestor.
 The characters used to identify the taxa must be homologous (they
must have a common origin), but not necessarily a common function
For example, all the parts of a flower—petals, sepals, stamens,
and carpels—originate in the same way, but they have d/t function
 made primarily by examining the fossil record to discover which
character states .
 Phyletic system are nowadays more common

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 4. Phenetics classification system
 Acc. to Harrison (1960), the word "Phenetic" state relationship by
overall similarity of all available morphological/phenotypic/
characters.
 similarity is determined based on a set of phenotypic characteristics of
organisms’
 comparison is done using computer program with equal weight of
each character.
 methods/approaches are used for determining the similarity of the
studied organisms.
– Selection of taxa- called Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs)
like species, genera or families.
– Selection of character states (mini. of 60 and 80-100 for
comparision).
– Description or measurement of character states.
– Ranking of all OTUs into the categories of the taxonomic
hierarchy."
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General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
 5. Phylogenetic classification system
Darwin publication change scientists way of classifying organisms to the phylogeny.

Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a group of related organisms.

It determining similarity by constructing branching patterns of evolution.

placing organisms in one clade with their common ancestor.

represented by a phylogenetic tree (cladograms),

Clade is a group of organisms that includes an ancestor and all of its descendants.
 Cladogram shows how species related with descent OR common ancestor.

 The method works as follows:

– Select monophyletic taxa
– Select characters of evolutionary interest.
– Describe and/or measure character states.
– Determine homologies of characters and character states.
– Generate trees or cladograms.
Q. What is the advantages of phylogenetic classification?

Phylogenetic classification tells something important about the

organism:
1. its evolutionary history.
2. phylogenetic classification does not attempt to "rank"
organisms. 19
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
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Domains of Life and the Hierarchical System of Classification


Linnaeus developed a hierarchical system of classification(HSC).


An arrangement of taxa into an ascending series of ever–increasing
inclusiveness forms is known as a hierarchical system of classification.


In a HSC; divide organisms beginning with a domain and ending with a single
species.


Domain is the highest taxonomic rank in the hierarchical classification, above
kingdom.


There are three major domains of life, based on the difference between
eukaryotes and prokaryotes
i.Domain Archaea,
ii.Domain Bacteria,
iii.
Domain Eucarya
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General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
12/29/21 General Biology , Taxonomy of organism 22
 Species
 are similar individuals
distinct from other
 they are the fundamental
bases of the hierarchy of
classification.
 Related species are grouped
in to one genus
 Related genera are grouped
in to one family…….


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 Concepts of the Kingdom
 kingdom is the second rank below the Domain
 based on the diversity of organisms and inclusiveness, Kingdoms are
divided into different types/approaches.

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 Binomial Nomenclature
 Nomenclature is the naming of organisms.
binomial nomenclature was practicable after Linnaeus wrote the
books "Species Plantarum and Genera Plantarum".
 In nomenclatural system, each organism is designated by two names,
genus and specific epithet( species name)
 No two species can have the same name.
The Purpose of giving names to organisms

 Give formal name for all living organism

 To avoid any vernacular names
 eliminates ambiguity about exactly what organism is being
discussed.
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 Q. What are the rules?
The rules of nomenclature begin from Linnaus’s of classification
The universal rules of nomenclature are as follows:

1. Biological names are in Latin and are written in italics.

2. the first word in the name indicates the genus, while the second word
denotes its specific epithet.

3. When the name is handwritten, both the words are separately underlined.
When printed, the name is in italics.

4. The first letter of the first word is always written in capital, while the first
letter of the specific epithet, i.e. the second word, is a small letter. ex.

Homo sapience , Echinops kebericho, Juniperus procera

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 International Code nomenclature
 The code is a rulebook that contains a set of principles, rules
and recommendations that govern the scientific naming of all
organisms. 
 Coding is the basis of the system of nomenclature.

 Generally the code provides:-

 maintain stability in the naming and classification of
organisms
 ensures that any given taxonomic grouping of a given rank can
• Note:
havethe primary
only objective
one correct of the
name, Code isthe
by which to species
promote is the
known.
stability of the names of taxa (groups of organisms) by
providing rules concerning name usage and the activity of
naming new taxa.

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 Different international codes are established for different groups of organisms
–International Code of Botanical nomenclature ( ICBN ) for Plants (including Fungi and Cyanobacteria )
–International Code for Nomenclature of Cultivated plants ( ICNCP ) only for cultivated plants
–International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN ) for Animals
–International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) - for Bacteria
–International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses ( ICTV ) for Viruses

1. International Code Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN)

ICBN is a set of rules and recommendation deal with the formal botanical names

that are given to plants (including algae, fungi and lichens).

Goal:-provide one correct name for each taxonomic group within a stable system

In ICBN, tautonyms are not valid (generic name and specific name should not be

same in plants. ...

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General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
 2. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN)
– It is the system of scientific names applied to taxonomic units of both
living and extinct animals.
– responsible to produce a set of rules for the naming of animals and
the resolution of nomenclatural problems.
– aims to provide 'standards, sense and stability for animal names in
science' by acting as an advisor and arbiter for the zoological
community.

3. International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB)

• It governs the scientific names for Bacteria, including Archaea bacteria.
• It denotes the rules for naming taxa of bacteria,
• It was approved at the 4th International Congress for Microbiology in
1947.
• These rules are maintained by the International Committee on
Systematics
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of Prokaryotes.
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 4. International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants
ICNCP regulates the names of cultigens (plants whose origin or
selection is primarily due to intentional human activity).
cultivated plants are artificial populations maintained and propagated
by man.
As result, infraspecific categories is hardly applicable to cultivated
plants.
- cultivated plants are named as cultivar and groups
Cultivar is any assemblage of cultivated plants which is;
• clearly distinguished by any characters
• These distinguishing characters retains when reproduced
sexually or asexual.
• distinct cultivated sorts are usually called varieties.

• Cultivar names are receded by the abbreviation Cv. or placed in single

quotation
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Latinized names.
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International Organizations & Unions for the Stabilization of Changes

 International Commissions are responsible for naming each major group

of organisms.
 At various times, taxonomists come together at international meetings to
discuss the overabundance of problems associated with nomenclature.
 There are several set of International Commissions or Committees.
For example:for
– ICBN: International Botanical Congress;
– ICZN: International Congress for Zoological Nomenclature.
– Cultivated plants: The International Commission for the
Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants.
– Fungi: The International Commission for the Taxonomy of Fungi
(ICTF).

Sets of rules and recommendations have been created, which is

applicable in nomenclatural
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procedures.
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism 32
 Names of taxa (the rank of the genus and above)
 They consist of one term only and called uninomial, uninominal or
unitary.
– They are plural nouns (or adjectives used as nouns)..
 Taxon is a taxonomic groups of organisms of any rank.
 The basic units of classification is species.
Family names: contain one term only and called uninominal names.
 They are plural nouns or adjectives used as nouns.
 written with a capital initial letter. E.g. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae.
Names of genera
• – They are uninomial.
• – They are singular nouns.
• – They are written with capital initial ex. Hagenia, Datura,
Withania
 named in honour of botanist, horticulturalist … eg Linnaea in
honour of Linnaeus General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
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 Species name:
 it called binomial, binominal or
binary names.
 Genus name + specific epithet
 It may be adjective or a noun,
which is known as specific
epithet. .
 May have several origin.
 Ex place, country, person…
 Hookeri by Hooker,
 schimperi by schimprii
• Thymus schimperi

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 Operative Principles of Nomenclature

The nomenclature code has set certain provisions, called Operative
Principles of Nomenclature. These are:
i. publication,
ii. typification
iii.priority.
1.Publication:-
Publication is a means of entering scientific names to the biological
nomenclature system.
The two basic conditions must be fulfilled , before formulating proper biological
nomenclature.
1.the name must be published in printed works and available for permanent
scientific data record for any interested public.

2.a name must be accompany by a written matter or a reference to such

description.
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 2. Typification
 Type is the process of designating a nomenclatural type, by which
types are allocated to taxa.
• A ‘type’ is the description associated with the original publication of a
name was based.
– The ‘type’ of names of taxa above the Genus and below and
including the Family is a Genus.
– The ‘type’ of the names of taxa above Species and below and
including the Genus is a species;
– the names of taxa below and including species is a specimen or a
description/ illustration of a specimen
• Naming of taxa is determined by nomenclatural type.

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 there are different kinds of "Types". Some of these are:
– Holotype: It is the sole element or specimen used or designated
for first publication by the author as a type.
• The holotype is typically placed in a major museum, or similar
well-known public collection,
– Isotype: The duplicates of a holotype.

– Syntype: is any one of two or more specimen used by the author

of a name who did not designate a holotype.

– Lectotype: is an specimen selected subsequently from among a

set of syntypes to serve as a ‘type’.

– Neotype a specimen later selected to serve as the single type

specimen when an original holotype has been lost or destroyed or
where the original author
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never cited a specimen. ".
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism 37
 Part of Holotype specimen of Hibiscus sankowskyorum

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 3. Priority

 The principle of priority requires when two or more names apply to

the same taxon.
 Priority of publication is basic for nomenclature.
  If two or more names are already in use, the correct name will be
the one that was published earlier. This system is known as the law
of priority.
 limitations of priority:
1. starting-point date: date of publication of a work prior
- principle of priority starts with the Species plantarum (Linnaeus
published,1753).
- publications before these dates for respective groups are
ignored
2. Not respect all rank equally: priority is applicable only up to
the family rank, and not above
3.Name of exclude: there are certain names not include in the code.
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
39
 – homonyms : is key problem of nomenclature, it occurs when two
or more names that are the same, but apply to different taxa
• names spelt in an identical manner for different ‘types’ of the
organism
– superfluous names- names that include the ‘type’ of another name
when published,
– tautonyms-name of a species in which the second term exactly
repeats the generic names have no any legal status in the code.
• However, tautonyms are allowed in zoological code.
• for ex. the epithet pairs microdon and mikrodon, and litoralis
and littoralis
• Note: the senior one is valid, reject the jounior name
 Two or more names are applied the same taxon, it is known as
synonyms.
• There are two kinds of synonyms;
i. nomenclatural synonyms: on the same ‘type’ of the organism
12/29/21 and called obligateor homotypic synonyms. 40
General Biology , Taxonomy of organism
 Authorities and Their Citations
 The scientific names of organisms are often written followed
by one or more personal names or the author name.
 Author name is a name of person who first published the
name based on the criteria of valid publication.
 Sometimes it is abbreviated.
– E.g. Rumex abyssinicus Jacq., Plantago lanceolata L.
 Sometimes, double citations are required.
 A double citation indicates there has been a change in taxonomic
position or rank.
 when a taxon below the rank of genus is transferred to another taxon, or
 when a genus or taxon of lower rank is altered in rank but retains its original
epithet
E.g. Carissa edulis Vahl.
 Later Linnaeus decided to place the specific epithet "spinarum", and
written
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as Carissa spinarum (Vahl.)
General Biology L.of organism
, Taxonomy
41
 THE END!!!

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YOUR ATTENTION!!!

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