Question

The branch of biology dealing with classification is known as
A. Physiology
B. Taxonomy
C. Paleontology
D. Mycology

Answer 1

Hint: Taxonomy is derived from Ancient Greek word where ‘taxis’ mean 'arrangement' and ‘nomia’ mean 'method'.

Complete answer: The science of naming, defining and classifying groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics is known as Taxonomy.
1. Organisms are grouped together into taxa and these groups are given a taxonomic rank
2. The groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy.
3. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum (division is sometimes used in botany in place of phylum), class, order, family, genus, and species.
4. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the founder of the current system of taxonomy.
5. He developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorizing organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.
The classification in descending order is-

So, the correct answer is “Option B”.

Note: 1. The term "alpha taxonomy" is mainly used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species.
2. William Bertram Turrill introduced the term "alpha taxonomy" in a series of papers in which he discussed the philosophy and possible future directions of the discipline of taxonomy.
3. Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined "beta taxonomy" as the classification of ranks higher than species.
The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called Micro taxonomy.
Macro taxonomy is the study of groups at the higher taxonomic rank, sub-genus.