Taxonomy

Designation (from grch. taxis = order, nomos = law) for the classification into a hierarchical system. In biology, living organisms such as animals, plants and viruses are hierarchically divided and classified into groups (taxa) according to their natural relationship. The first attempts to do this were already made in antiquity, for example by the Greek naturalist Theophrastos (370-287 BC).

The Swedish botanist Carl von Linné (1707-1778) developed the foundations of modern taxonomy and introduced the concept of "species" into biological systematics. In 1735 he published the work "Fundamenta Botanica", in which he for the first time presented in detail his ideas for redesigning the foundations of botany. His official botanical author abbreviation is "L.". However, Linne's classification system did not yet include all the categories or levels that are common today. However, these are not always used for all plants or animals. The respective use simply depends on how complex the respective units are. The three main categories almost always mentioned in professional sources are family genus-species. Each category can also be broken down into "subspecies". Similarly, the last sublevel of a main category can be created as a "superlevel", which then stands above the next main category (superdiviso).