A description of the concept and methods of New Systematics as propounded by Julian Huxley and enumerated by Ernst mayr

1. New Systematics
M.Raj
Associate Professor
Darrang College

2. The approach of the population taxonomist differs rather drastically
from the simple pigeonholing of classical Linnaean taxonomy
To emphasize the difference, Huxley (1940) introduced the term new
systematics for the newer approach
Actually, its roots go back to the first half of the nineteenth century and
some traces of the new systematics can he found in the writings of
taxonomists who worked as long as 150 years ago
It started primarily as a rebellion against the nominalistic-typological
and thoroughly non-biological approach of certain, alas all too many,
taxonomists of the preceding period.
Every generation has its own new systematics and what might have
been considered new in 1940 may indeed be very old systematics now.
According to Mayr(1963) “Perhaps it is best described as a viewpoint,
an attitude, a general philosophy”.

3. Workers in the new systematics consider themselves biologists rather
than filing clerks. This has a number of well-defined consequences in
their attitude toward their material and toward various techniques
These workers are conscious at all times that they are classifying
organisms, not the remains of organisms or mere names.
As a consequence, they place considerable emphasis on so-called
biological characteristics, that is on non morphological information
derived from behavior, physiology, biochemistry, ecology and so forth.
They appreciate the fact that all organisms occur in nature as members
of populations and that specimens cannot be understood and properly
classified unless they are treated as samples of natural populations.
As a consequence they attempt to collect statistically adequate
samples, which in the case of variable species often amount to
hundreds or thousands of specimens in order to be able to undertake a
study of individual and geographic variation with the help of the best
biometric and statistical tools.

4. Current model of the new systematics
If we attempted to describe the current model of the new systematics,
we would see at once that every single item is merely the continuation
of a trend which in most cases started more than 100 years ago. Some
of these points follow
1.The utilization of
an ever-increasing number of kinds of characters
and
a continued depreciation of
key characters and single-character classifications,
in contrast to the typological approach

5. 2. A ready acceptance of new tools and techniques including the
following:
a. The visual analysis (by sonagrarms and other means) of sounds in
insects (cicadas. orthopterans) frogs and birds
b. The analysis of courtship displays and other behavior
Current model of the new systematics
c. The utilization of biochemical characters particularly those yielded by
various methods of protein analysis
d. The utilization of computers to reduce the danger of subjectivity in
character evaluation

6. Current model of the new systematics
3. A further clarification of concepts, for instance
a. A clearer separation of taxon from category
b. The recognition of the subspecies as a category, not an evolutionary
unit
c. A clearer understanding of the causes of similarities and differences
between taxa
It is evident that the new systemaics is neither a special technique nor
a special method but a viewpoint or attitude which .can be applied at
every taxonomic level. However, its major impact has been in
microtaxonomy.