Explain the Modern Trends in Animal Taxonomy?
Earlier you learnt how taxonomy is interrelated to other biological fields. You also learnt how information is used from other fields of biology along with morphological data in the identification of a large number of plant species.
Similarly, in this unit you will see how often morphological observations are not sufficient for accurately identifying or classifying animals and taxonomists have to, supplement their information from other scientific fields such as electron microscopy, embryology, ethology, cytology, and biochemistry and computer analysis.
Furthermore, you will learn that the use of such data has given taxonomy a much wider dimension. It is now no longer limited to just classifying animals but is also involved in working out the phylogenetic relationship between species. As a result taxonomy is now a part of systematic or biosystematics on which it relies heavily for its theories and concepts. Biosystematics has a broad base as it not only includes the function of identification but also the comparative study of all and every aspect of the organism and also the interpretation of the evolutionary history.