Introduction to Systematics

This introductory chapter provides an overview of systematics, which is the science of biological classification. It embodies the study of organic diversity and provides the comparative framework to study the historical aspects of the evolutionary process. The chapter then explores the nature of systematics as an independent discipline and briefly surveys the literature sources most frequently used by systematists. It differentiates between evolutionary taxonomy, phenetics, and phylogenetics (cladistics). Ultimately, systematics is the most strongly comparative of all of the biological sciences, and its methods and principles transcend the differences between botany and zoology. It is also the most strongly historical field within biology, and as such provides the basis for nearly all inferences concerning historical patterns and processes. Among the earth sciences, systematics is directly comparable to historical geology, and indeed the two fields find integration in paleontology.