What is Taxonomy?

Biological taxonomy is the scientific discipline of classifying and naming the organisms that compose present and past biodiversity as formal units or entities, the taxa. Its work consists of three steps: (1) the recognition, delimitation, and differential definition (or diagnosis) of the basic discrete units resulting from the evolutionary process (the species), (2) the establishment of a hierarchical classification of these taxa reflecting their evolutionary relationships, and (3) their naming according to nomenclatural rules relying on museum-kept voucher specimens (so-called ‘types’).