natural classification

British  

noun

1. biology classification of organisms according to relationships based on descent from a common ancestor

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Example Sentences

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natural classification

The Linnæan arrangement of animals cannot be considered in any other light; for, if we view it as a natural classification, we meet with false positions and erroneous views at almost every step.

From Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History by MacGillivray, William

The theory of evolution finds its broadest inductive foundation in the natural classification of living things, which arranges all the various forms in larger and smaller groups, according to their degree of affinity.

From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August

And the natural classification gave the order not only of geological succession but also of stages of embryonic development.

From The Whence and the Whither of Man A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by Tyler, John Mason

Our luminous classifier then triumphantly winds up:—"Having now demonstrated, in one of the very lowest groups of quadrupeds, the validity of those principles of natural classification we have so often illustrated," &c.

From Delineations of the Ox Tribe The Natural History of Bulls, Bisons, and Buffaloes. Exhibiting all the Known Species and the More Remarkable Varieties of the Genus Bos. by Vasey, George

In the next place we require a true and natural classification of animals and plants, so that we may know their real affinities; and it is only now that this is being generally arrived at.

From Island Life Or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras by Wallace, Alfred Russel