We explain what systematics is and what this branch of biology is responsible for. Also, what are the schools of systematics.
What is systematics?
Systematic refers to the branch of the biology which deals with the classification of species of known living beings, from the understanding of their evolutionary or phylogenetic history. It is known as edge (from Latin phylum) to each rung of the evolutionary ladder described by scientists.
Thus, the systematics takes care of the description and interpretation of the biological diversity that exists on our planet, based on the fundamental unit of its study, which is the species: a grouping of living beings similar genetically and phenotypically, capable of reproducing among themselves and generating fertile and viable offspring.
The species studied by systematics receive a Latin name that is known as scientific name, and consisting of two words written in italics, the first of which corresponds to the genus (the one that begins with a capital letter) and the second to the species (written all in lowercase). For example, the human species it is called Homo sapiens. These names often pay tribute to the scientists who discovered the species in question.
This branch of biology is mainly due to studies and observations that from the 18th century gave rise to the evolutionary theory, which refined and endorsed by the studies of Charles Darwin and later generations of biologists and naturalists, allowed to corroborate the evolutionary origin of the species and discard the thesis creationists supported by the tradition religious.
Systematics uses numerous tools and concepts from nearby disciplines in its studies, such as taxonomy and the nomenclature, which are more technical than disciplines. However, no other branch of biology, from the zoology until the microbiology and virology, lacks contact with phylogenetic studies of this specialty.
Schools of systematics
The systematics comprises three branches or schools, which propose specific methods of understanding and representing evolutionary history. These schools are:
- Evolutionary school. It is based on the use of four main criteria to classify and organize the life: morphological or body differences, adaptive niches, species richness and minimal monophyly.
- Phenetic taxonomy. Considering that establishing the real and objective history of the evolution of life is impossible, he rather proposes establishing stable and practical categories to classify it, instead of trying to reconstruct the past of the species. For this he uses the math Y phenograms, representations that consider the degree of similarity between species.
- Cladistics. Emerged in 1950 by William Hennig and developed widely since then, it proposes to understand the history of life from groups monophyletic: those in which an ancestral species and all its descendants are found.