The New Taxonomy

Initiatives reinventing taxonomy for the Internet generation are leading to a dramatic resurgence in this once declining discipline. Looking at the efforts of several groups to catalog the world's biodiversity and make it accessible , this work discusses the future of descriptive taxonomy. It covers such technology as DNA evidence and its applications, computer-assisted species identification, digital morphology, and E-typification. It also provides insight into effective ways of organizing taxonomic information, and discusses what benefits can be leveraged from a rapid growth of taxonomic knowledge.