it is to do with stages in taxonomy

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Note added at 2004-02-01 18:05:26 (GMT)
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What is taxonomy and why is it necessary? Who were the first taxonomists and what
did each contribute? What are the seven taxons in the present taxonomic system ...


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Note added at 2004-02-01 18:10:24 (GMT)
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The original purpose of taxonomy was the recognition, categorization, and identification
of ... task of ordering species into only 26 or 28 taxons became impossible ...
www.pcisys.net/~dlblanc/taxonomy.html - 8k -

HTH

Sheila

Taxon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


A taxon (plural taxa) is an element of a taxonomy, e.g. in the scientific classification in biology. Taxa form a hierarchical scheme, each being broken down into subtaxa.

In traditional Linnaean taxonomy, taxa are ranked as follows, with some of the less widely used ranks indented:


Kingdom
Phylum (animals) or Division (plants)
Class
Order
Family

Tribe
Genus

Section
Series
Species

Variety
Form


A prefix is used to indicate a ranking that falls between two taxa. The prefix super- indicates a rank above another, the prefix sub- indicates a rank below another, and the prefix infra- indicates a rank below sub-. For instance:


Superclass
Class
Subclass
Infraclass

It has become generally accepted that taxa should contain an ancestral form and all or some of its descendants, though the validity of the latter category is increasingly debated.

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Note added at 12 mins (2004-02-01 17:53:02 GMT)
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Hierarchy (Glossary) - [ Traduzca esta página ]
... Nevertheless, it is an ideal concept that most taxonomists apply as best
they can. What is a taxon? A taxon (plural taxa) is a taxonomic unit. ...
osf2.orthoptera.org/glossary/GHierarchy.aspx - 8k - En caché - Páginas similares

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics - [ Traduzca esta página ]
... Back. Term, Taxon (plural taxa). Description, unit (group) of organisms used in
taxonomy. Back to top | Statistics Division Home | Contact us | Search | Site Map. ...
unstats.un.org/unsd/environmentgl/ gesform.asp?getitem=1121 - 12k - En caché - Páginas similares

Human Rights and Environment Resources - [ Traduzca esta página ]
Environment and Human Rights Resources, Taxon (plural taxa). Unit (group)
of organisms used in taxonomy. Source: United Nations, Glossary ...
shr.aaas.org/hrenv/glossary.php?g_id=7110 - 9k - En caché - Páginas similares

9/6/01 - [ Traduzca esta página ]
... categories. -each category is known as a taxon - plural = taxa. -It\'s
hierarchical in that a category includes categories with it. ...
www.geo.arizona.edu/geo3xx/geo308/ TaxAndSysLectureNotes2003.htm - 53k - En caché - Páginas similares

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Note added at 3 hrs 26 mins (2004-02-01 21:07:16 GMT)
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Learning Taxonomy
by Philip Dorrell RSS




Taxonomy is one of the more important concepts in biology, and one that is actually not too hard to understand. This article presents some ideas about how it can be taught at a basic level.

Taxonomy is about the groups that different kinds of living organisms fall into. The first problem is finding a name for these groups. The word group is both vague and confusing, it suggests an actual group of individual organisms. One term is systematic unit, which is not even a single word. Taxon is short and sweet. The only problem is that it has a bizarre irregular plural: taxa. (Well, not so irregular, c.f. phenomena, criteria; but these words are more common.)

Maybe we should regularise the plural to taxons so that the irregular grammar does not distract from the discussion. This would be consistent with a basic rule of grammar which states that the inflected forms of any word that you have never heard of before are all regular.

A Sample Taxon: Birds

Some taxa are so easy that we already know them. I think the best one is the birds. Birds have wings which they use to fly and they have feathers and beaks and two legs. They lay eggs with hard shells. OK, so some of them don\'t fly, but we\'ll deal with that issue later. We see a lot of birds without knowing what particular kind of bird they are, and we just think of them as being birds.


http://www.1729.com/wiki/LearningTaxonomy.html


To the best of my knowledge, botanists at least retain the Greek plural for
taxon, i.e., taxa. I don\'t believe I have ever seen \"taxons\" used in the
botanical literature. This even extends to the derivative term \"novon\",
recently coined by Missouri Botanical Garden for nomenclatural innovations
(new taxa, new combinations, replacement names, etc.), from novus and taxon
(ordinarily one shouldn\'t compound Greek and Latin roots, but this isn\'t
really a compound, so I guess we\'ll let it slide). Anyway, I believe I\'ve
seen its plural given as \"nova\", in parallel to taxon/taxa.

In general, I think botanists tend to retain original plurals; \"calyces\"
seems to occur more often than \"calyxs\", though \"corollas\" is almost always
preferred to \"corollae\".


Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA


http://biodiversity.uno.edu/~gophtax/_gophtax.98/1154.html



TAXON
Pronunciation:   \'taksun
Matching Terms:   Taxodiaceae, Taxodium, Taxodium ascendens, Taxodium distichum, Taxodium mucronatum, Taxol, taxologic, taxology, taxonomer, Taxonomic, taxonomic group, taxonomical, taxonomically, taxonomist, taxonomy, Taxophytina, Taxopsida, Taxor, Taxotere
WordNet Dictionary
 
  Definition:   [n]  animal or plant group having natural relations
 
  Synonyms:   taxonomic group
 

 
Biology Dictionary
 
  Definition:   A group or category, at any level, in a system for classifying plants or animals.
 
  ***Synonyms:   plural: taxa***
 

 

 
Glossary
 
  Definition:   a group of organisms at any level of the taxonomic hierarchy. The major taxa are the species and genus and the higher taxa, including the family, order, class, phylum, and kingdom.
 
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/taxon