Definition of "systematics" [systematics]

• The science of systematic classification. (noun)
• A system of classification, as biosystematics. (noun)
• Biology The systematic classification of organisms and the evolutionary relationships among them; taxonomy. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The use of hierarchies as organizational models in systematics"
• "Cladistics, or phylogenetic systematics, is a system of classifying living and extinct organisms based on evolutionary ancestry as determined by grouping taxa according to "derived characters," that is characteristics or features shared uniquely by the taxa and their common ancestor."
• "If dinosaurs really do get lumped more than they already are, it strikes me that the trend within dinosaur systematics is in direct opposition to that occurring among extant tetrapods."