Taxonomy, what’s the big deal?

Today (March 19) is World Taxonomist day! The day when we celebrate and say thanks to all the scientists who have made talking about biology slightly less confusing!

Taxonomy is the branch of biology that is all about classifying and naming species of animal.

Fitting new species into taxonomy systems is a long process, and with an estimated one trillion species on earth it’s going to take many more human lifetimes.

To put it in perspective, we’ve only catalogued and named 1.6 million so far.

But why is it important to name and classify species?

Simply, if we don’t know how animals relate to each other, we don’t know how to best preserve and protect them.

So to all the taxonomists out there - keep it up!