What is a taxon?

In biology, a taxon is a unit used to classify living organisms at different levels of abstraction — from very specific to very broad.
Species belong to genera, genera to families, families to orders, and so on. A helpful analogy is that of nested Russian dolls: each level contains the one below it, forming a structured hierarchy of biological relatedness.

About classification and terminology

Biological classification is not fixed. The assignment of lower taxa to higher ones reflects the current state of scientific knowledge and may change as new genetic and phylogenetic evidence becomes available. Different classification systems can therefore coexist, especially at higher taxonomic levels.

For reasons of clarity and consistency, this project occasionally uses the term clade for higher-level groupings and introduces internal subdivisions (Clade I–IV) as navigational aids. These labels are structural and descriptive, not claims of formal taxonomic status, and serve to make complex relationships more readable within the context of this dataset.