Species - Importance in Biological Classification

Importance in Biological Classification

The idea of species has a long history. It is one of the most important levels of classification, for several reasons:

  • It often corresponds to what lay people treat as the different basic kinds of organism – dogs are one species, cats another.
  • It is the standard binomial nomenclature (or trinomial nomenclature) by which scientists typically refer to organisms.
  • It is the highest taxonomic level that cannot be made more or less inclusionary.

After years of use, the concept remains central to biology and a host of related fields, and yet also remains at times ill-defined.

Read more about this topic:  Species

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