Biological classification

Biological classification arranges organisms into named groups based on shared characteristics and evolutionary relationships. Modern systems aim to represent patterns of common ancestry.

Taxonomy: The practice and principles of describing, naming, and classifying organisms. Taxonomy supplies the formal methods used to establish biological groups.
Cladistics: A method of grouping organisms by shared derived characters to infer common ancestry. Cladistics builds groups around shared evolutionary innovations.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose writings organized animals by observed traits and ways of life. His animal groupings exemplify early systematic attempts to organize living things.
Phenetics: A classification approach that groups organisms by overall measured similarity. Phenetics contrasts with ancestry-based classification by emphasizing total similarity.
Taxonomic rank: A level in a classification hierarchy, such as species, genus, or family. Ranks arrange groups into nested levels, from species upward.
Cladogram: A branching diagram showing inferred relationships based on shared characteristics. Cladograms display the branching hypotheses that inform classification.
Carl Linnaeus: A Swedish naturalist who established influential systems of biological naming and hierarchy. Linnaeus shaped the ranked naming framework still used in taxonomy.
Evolutionary taxonomy: A system that considers both common ancestry and the degree of evolutionary divergence. It may retain groups that cladistic classification rejects as incomplete lineages.
Binomial nomenclature: A naming system that gives each species a two-part scientific name. Standardized species names let classifications be discussed across languages and regions.
Homology (biology): Similarity between biological features due to inheritance from a common ancestor. Homologous traits can support a grouping because they reflect shared ancestry.

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