- Taxon
A taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a name designating an organism or a group of
organism s. Inbiological nomenclature according toCarl Linnaeus , a taxon is assigned ataxonomic rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships.A distinction is to be made between taxa/taxonomy and classification/systematics. The former refers to biological names and the rules of naming. The latter refers to rank ordering of taxa according to presumptive evolutionary (phylogenetic) relationships.
Note: "Phylum" applies formally to any biological domain, but traditionally it was always used for animals, whereas "Division" was traditionally often used for
plant s, fungi, etc.A simple mnemonic phrase to remember the sequence of taxonomic levels is:"Dignified Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Silk"; another, highly expedient example is "King Philip's Class Orders the Family Genius to Speak" or "Dumb King Philip Crawled Over Five Girl Scouts".
A prefix is used to indicate a ranking of lesser importance. The prefix "super-" indicates a rank above, the prefix "sub-" indicates a rank below. In zoology the prefix "infra-" indicates a rank below "sub-". For instance::Superclass:Class:Subclass:Infraclass
Rank is relative, and restricted to a particular systematic schema. For example,
liverworts have been grouped, in various systems of classification, as a family, order, class, or division (phylum). The use of a narrow set of ranks is challenged by users ofcladistics ; for example, the mere 10 ranks traditionally used between animal families (governed by theICZN ) and animal phyla (usually the highest relevant rank in taxonomic work) often cannot adequately represent the evolutionary history as more about a lineage'sphylogeny becomes known. In addition, the class rank is quite often not an evolutionary but aphenetic al andparaphyletic group and as opposed to those ranks governed by the ICZN, can usually not be made monophyletic by exchanging the taxa contained therein. This has given rise tophylogenetic taxonomy and the ongoing development of thePhyloCode , which is to govern the application of taxa toclade s.ee also
*
Alpha taxonomy
*Chresonym
*Cladistics
*ICBN
*ICZN
*Rank (botany)
*Rank (zoology)
*Segregate (taxonomy)
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Look at other dictionaries:
taxon — taxon … Dictionnaire des rimes
taxon — [ taksɔ̃ ] n. m. • 1964; du gr. taxis → taxi ♦ Biol. Unité formelle représentée par un groupe d organismes, à chaque niveau de la classification (⇒ cladogramme). Taxon de rang spécifique, de rang familial. Des taxons. ● taxon ou taxum nom… … Encyclopédie Universelle
taxon — taxón s. m. Trimis de siveco, 10.08.2004. Sursa: Dicţionar ortografic TAXÓN m. biol. Unitate sistematică folosită la clasificarea regnului vegetal şi animal. /<fr. taxon Trimis de siveco, 22.08.2004. Sursa: NODEX TAXÓN s.m. ( … Dicționar Român
taxon — taxón o taxon (Palabra creada sobre taxonomía). m. Biol. Cada una de las subdivisiones de la clasificación biológica, desde la especie, que se toma como unidad, hasta el filo o tipo de organización … Diccionario de la lengua española
taxón — o taxon (Palabra creada sobre taxonomía). m. Biol. Cada una de las subdivisiones de la clasificación biológica, desde la especie, que se toma como unidad, hasta el filo o tipo de organización … Diccionario de la lengua española
Taxon — Tax on (t[a^]ks [o^]n), n.; pl. {taxa} or {taxons}. a taxonomic group, or the name of a taxonomic grouping. [PJC] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
taxon — taxon. См. таксон. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) … Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.
Taxon — (Plur. Taxa), einer Kategorie entsprechende Benennung einer natürlichen Gruppe von Organismen. Die Zuordnung erfolgt aufgrund einer »diskontinuierlichen Variabilität«; darunter versteht man eine zu beobachtende Gleichförmigkeit bei Angehörigen… … Deutsch wörterbuch der biologie
taxon — 1929, from German (1926), shortened from taxonomie (see TAXONOMY (Cf. taxonomy)) … Etymology dictionary
taxon — [tak′sän΄] n. pl. taxa [tak′sə] [back form. < TAXONOMY] a taxonomic category or unit, as a species or family … English World dictionary
Taxón — La clasificación jerárquica puede expresarse con un dendrograma, en que cada nodo representa un posible taxón y los taxones se agrupan en una jerarquía de inclusión. En biología, un taxón (del griego ταξις, transliterado como taxis, ordenamiento… … Wikipedia Español