Systematics and taxonomy are complementary scientific disciplines within the biological sciences that address organismal diversity and evolutionary relationships. Systematics encompasses the study and inference of phylogenetic relationships using morphological, molecular, behavioral, and biochemical data, often employing cladistic, probabilistic, or distance-based methods to reconstruct evolutionary histories and test hypotheses of common ancestry. Taxonomy provides the principles and rules for discovering, describing, naming, and classifying organisms, including species delimitation, typification, and hierarchical ranking under formal codes of nomenclature. Together, systematics and taxonomy generate a predictive classification framework that reflects phylogeny and underpins comparative biology, biodiversity assessment, and conservation planning.
When most people imagine scientists discovering new species, they probably still picture an expedition into the unknown.
Ecology
Jun 4, 2026
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The high mountain ranges of Asia remain among the least biologically explored regions of the continent. Now, an international team of researchers has shown that one of their most elusive venomous snakes, long treated as a ...
Plants & Animals
May 25, 2026
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Marine scientists have discovered that what was once thought to be a single sea slug species is actually at least 75 distinct species that were shaped over millions of years by repeated Antarctic glacial cycles.
Plants & Animals
May 21, 2026
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Even large and conspicuous insects remain unknown to science. This is highlighted by a new study from the Natural History Museum Denmark, where researchers have discovered and described 61 new species within the rove beetle ...
Plants & Animals
May 15, 2026
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A microscopic "plant destroyer" not only helped trigger one of the deadliest famines in modern history but also reshaped global agriculture and gave birth to an entirely new scientific discipline. Now, nearly 180 years after ...
Plants & Animals
May 13, 2026
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Describing new species can take decades. But scientists are working to identify new ways to speed up our understanding of this hidden biodiversity. By looking at the genetic data of thousands of beetle species, our researchers ...
Ecology
May 13, 2026
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More than a decade after the Nagoya Protocol, which aims to fairly share the benefits of utilizing genetic resources, became law, microbiologists and other scientists still face practical challenges and confusion. A new guide ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 13, 2026
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A new study by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) has revealed significant cryptic diversity within two-toed sloths (Choloepus) in Amazonia, challenging the long-established ...
Ecology
Apr 27, 2026
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Tropical rainforests are known for their unique biodiversity, with species found nowhere else on Earth. But nearly 30% of tropical rainforest has been destroyed or has become seriously degraded since 1990. Many of these forests ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 23, 2026
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Vast online archives of photos, videos and sound recordings collected by the public are reshaping how scientists study the natural world, allowing researchers to answer questions that were once out of reach. A new study led ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 23, 2026
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