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What is the first step in taxonomy?

seo-qna
Last updated date: 16th May 2024
Total views: 315.3k
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Answer
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Hint: Almost 1.7 billion field organisms are present all over the globe which present a great deal of effort studying each and every one of them. They have a huge number. Thus, we made a certain system to name and classify them.

Complete answer:
Taxonomy can be understood as a system to identify and classify different types of organisms into different categories.
It has several steps such as identification, characterisation, classification and nomenclature.
The first step to taxonomy is identification. Identifying an organism is really essential for categorizing the organism. It is a really crucial and unavoidable step.
The word taxis means to arrange, as it has a significant role to classify the biological organism into different kinds of groups based on the common characteristics they share. Organisms are classified under a taxa and their groups are given a taxonomic rank such as species, genus, order, class, phylum etc. Different groups can be assembled to form a higher taxa, therefore creating a kind of hierarchy. For instance, similar kinds of species which have some characteristics in common may come under the same genus. The number of common characteristics would decrease on going to a higher taxa. The organisms coming under the same species have the most common characteristics.
Biologists who practice taxonomy are known as taxonomists. This branch allows us to study and organise the vast variety of organisms. It is very important in the field of conservation biology as it eases the work of taxonomists.

Note:
The steps in taxonomy include identification, characterisation, classification, and nomenclature. To classify an organism this order must be followed by any botanist or zoologist. Taxonomy gives us the opportunity to study the wide variety of organisms easily and in an organised way.