Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Primates

Abstract

Taxonomy is defined by Ernst Mayr (1969) as “The theory and practice of classifying organisms”; as a shorthand, it is used (“a taxonomy”) for an actual classification itself. Phylogeny was defined by Haeckel, who coined the term, as “the entire science of the changes in form through which the phyla or organic lineages pass through the entire time of their discrete existence”. As in the case of the term “taxonomy”, we commonly use “a phylogeny” to mean a given group’s own evolutionary history.