For two years in the late 1970s I followed in the footsteps of Carl Linnaeus: I toiled in the field of taxonomy. The small corner of nature's jigsaw puzzle that I tackled was a group of marine sponges ...

Classification is a natural human propensity—we organize our clothes, our kitchen cupboards, and our toys. This applies to the natural world, too, where animals and plants are grouped based on ...

Fish, flies and bears, oh my! A new research breakthrough gives genetic proof of how differences in (very different) animals develop. An international team of biologists has identified the molecular ...

Taxonomy is the science that attempts to categorise the many millions of species on Earth. Find out how to define taxonomy, what taxonomists do and why classifying life is so important. The definition ...

The relevance of taxonomy in our genomic era is greater than ever. Correct naming is crucial for developing new foods and medicines, and for understanding our changing environment. Amazingly, we do ...