taxon

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tax·on

(tăk′sŏn′)

n. pl. tax·a (tăk′sə)

A taxonomic category or group, such as a phylum, order, family, genus, or species.

[New Latin, back formation from taxonomy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

taxon

(ˈtæksɒn)

n, pl taxa (ˈtæksə)

(Biology) biology any taxonomic group or rank

[C20: back formation from taxonomy]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tax•on

(ˈtæk sɒn)

n., pl. tax•a (ˈtæk sə)

a taxonomic category, as a species or genus.

[1945–50; < German (1926), from taxonomy]

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Noun

taxon - animal or plant group having natural relations

taxonomic category, taxonomic group

Adapid, Adapid group - extinct small mostly diurnal lower primates that fed on leaves and fruit; abundant in North America and Europe 30 to 50 million years ago; their descendents probably include the lemurs; some authorities consider them ancestral to anthropoids but others consider them only cousins

Omomyid, Omomyid group - extinct tiny nocturnal lower primates that fed on fruit and insects; abundant in North America and Europe 30 to 50 million years ago; probably gave rise to the tarsiers; some authorities consider them ancestral to anthropoids but others consider them only cousins

kingdom - the highest taxonomic group into which organisms are grouped; one of five biological categories: Monera or Protoctista or Plantae or Fungi or Animalia

subkingdom - (biology) a taxonomic group comprising a major division of a kingdom

biological group - a group of plants or animals

variety - (biology) a taxonomic category consisting of members of a species that differ from others of the same species in minor but heritable characteristics; "varieties are frequently recognized in botany"

phylum - (biology) the major taxonomic group of animals and plants; contains classes

subphylum - (biology) a taxonomic group ranking between a phylum and a class

superphylum - (biology) a taxonomic group ranking between a phylum and below a class or subclass

class - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders

subclass - (biology) a taxonomic category below a class and above an order

superclass - (biology) a taxonomic class below a phylum and above a class

order - (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families

suborder - (biology) taxonomic group that is a subdivision of an order

superorder - (biology) a taxonomic group ranking above an order and below a class or subclass

family - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more genera; "sharks belong to the fish family"

superfamily - (biology) a taxonomic group ranking below an order but above a family

subfamily - (biology) a taxonomic category below a family

tribe - (biology) a taxonomic category between a genus and a subfamily

genus - (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species

subgenus - (biology) taxonomic group between a genus and a species

monotype - (biology) a taxonomic group with a single member (a single species or genus)

species - (biology) taxonomic group whose members can interbreed

subspecies - (biology) a taxonomic group that is a division of a species; usually arises as a consequence of geographical isolation within a species

var., variant, strain, form - (biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups; "a new strain of microorganisms"

type - (biology) the taxonomic group whose characteristics are used to define the next higher taxon

group Pteridospermae, group Pteridospermaphyta, Pteridospermae, Pteridospermaphyta - used in some classification systems: a group of extinct fossil gymnosperms coextensive with the order Cycadofilicales

Centrospermae, group Centrospermae - used in former classification systems; approximately synonymous with order Caryophyllales

Amentiferae, group Amentiferae - used in some classification systems for plants that bear catkins

Phycomycetes, Phycomycetes group - a large and probably unnatural group of fungi and funguslike organisms comprising the Mastigomycota (including the Oomycetes) and Zygomycota subdivisions of the division Eumycota; a category not used in all systems

Translations

Taxon

References in periodicals archive ?

Taxon Biosciences' capabilities are expected to provide synergetic value to Lavie and accelerate the development of Lavie's products.

Corteva Agriscience to Invest in Israel-Based Biologicals Company Lavie Bio

I bis suggests the latest trends in mycorrhizal bioprotection may not be as robust as one might expect, due to redundancy in taxon usage.

Recent Trend: Is the Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Plant-Enemies Performance Biased by Taxon Usage?

Este concepto considera a los factores bioticos y abioticos necesarios para que las poblaciones de un taxon puedan sobrevivir indefinidamente sin la necesidad de migrar (Grinnell, 1917; Hutchinson, 1944).

Distribucion conocida y potencial de dos taxa del genero Mimosa (Leguminosae) endemicos de Mexico

Considerando la variabilidad de cada taxon, se seleccionaron tres individuos de cada uno.

Complejos estomaticos de veinticuatro taxa de Mimosa (Leguminosae) presentes en Mexico/Stomatal complexes of twenty-four species of Mimosa (Leguminosae) occurring in Mexico

Specifically, we examined the proportion of a taxon in catch per station and average weight of individuals collected with 2 types of trawl gear: a 2-m beam trawl and a 4-seam, 3-bridle survey trawl (Bonzek et al.

Spring occurrence of fish and macro-invertebrate assemblages near designated wind energy areas on the northeast U.S. continental shelf

Average taxon richness per site was 9 taxa, ranging from 3-21 taxa.

Aquatic invertebrate and vertebrate communities of ephemeral stream ecosystems in the arid Southwestern United States

2: Arboreal pollen concentrations (in percentage) per taxon. Pinaceae 37% Cupressaceae 20% Oleaceae 14% Eucalyptus sp.

Analysis of airborne pollen grains in Annaba, (northern-east Algeria)

Yet despite these programs, little is known today about megabenthic taxon richness across the large spatial extent of the Canadian Arctic.

Regional variability of megabenthic community structure across the Canadian Arctic

As has been recently discussed (Perez-Garcia, 2013), the absence of a sagittal keel on the carapace of NHMUK R8699 (a character recognized as exclusive of Tropidemys) refutes its attribution to the plesiochelyid "Pelobatochelys'" blakii as suggested by Taylor and Benton (1986), a taxon also defined in the Kimmeridgian of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset.

New data on the poorly-known Late Jurassic European turtles Thalassemys and Enaliochelys and description of a new basal eucryptodiran taxon

tomentosa in the north-eastern part of Latvia in Maliena 'Darznieki' IIL (Cinovskis et al., 1987); in 2010 the taxon was not found there any more.

Analysis of some limiting ecological factors on the example of the distribution of the genus Tilia L. cultivated in Latvia

The results revealed that phylum Proteobacteria was dominant taxon (82%) in the GM and the GFP.