BIOLOGY Volume 3 - A Guide to General Biology - 2004

26. EVOLUTION, OR THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH

26.7. Evidence for the Theory of Evolution

26.7.3. Classification

The Classification system described in Chapter 2 was developed by Linnaeus long before Darwin and Wallace; nevertheless, it contains indirect clues pointing to the issues of speciation and evolution. Of course, one could imagine that all species—both extant and extinct—were created individually at separate points in time or have existed forever; however, the structural similarities among organisms that form The basis of a natural phylogenetic classification strongly suggest the existence of an evolutionary process. The Similarities and differences between organisms can be explained as the result of progressive adaptation within each taxonomic group to specific environmental conditions over a period of time.

Numerical taxonomists, who focus primarily on comparing phenotypic traits, have managed to develop a phenetic classification that aligns, as far as current data allows, with the Concept of Evolution. Both classification systems can serve independent purposes as Methods for describing the vast array of living organisms, yet at the same time they clearly point to the existence of an underlying evolutionary process.