The term morphology in biology refers to the outward appearance (shape, structure, colour, pattern) of an organism or taxon and its component parts. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles The shape ( OE sceap Eng created thing) of an object located in some space refers to the part of space occupied by the object as determined Structure is a fundamental and sometimes Intangible notion covering the Recognition, Observation, nature, and Stability of A pattern, from the French patron, is a theme of recurring events or objects sometimes referred to as elements of a set A taxon (plural taxa) or taxonomic unit, is a name designating an organism or a group of Organisms In Biological nomenclature according to This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function. Physiology (from Greek grc φύσις physis, "nature origin" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of the mechanical physical
Also in use is the term "gross morphology", which refers to the prominent or principal aspects of an organism or taxon's morphology. A description of an organism's gross morphology would include, for example, its overall shape, overall colour, main markings etc. but not finer details.
Most taxa differ morphologically from other taxa. Typically, closely related taxa differ much less than more distantly related ones, but there are exceptions to this. Cryptic species are species which look very similar, or perhaps even outwardly identical, but are reproductively isolated. In Biology, a cryptic species complex is a group of Species which satisfy the biological definition of species that is they are reproductively isolated from each In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. Conversely, sometimes unrelated taxa acquire similar appearance through convergent evolution or even through mimicry. Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages Biological mimicry occurs when a group of organisms the mimics, have A further problem with relying on morphological data is that what may appear, morphologically speaking, to be two distinct species, may in fact be shown by DNA analysis to be a single species.
See also
Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of Species based on evolutionary ancestry Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the Anatomy of Organisms It is closely related to Evolutionary biology and Phylogeny Morphometrics is a field concerned with studying variation and change in the form (size and shape of organisms Commonly the measurements taken are of little significance in terms of Phenetics should not be confused with Phonetics, the study of speech sounds despite the similarity in pronunciation Plant morphology (or phytomorphology) is the general term for the study of the morphology (physical form and external structure of Plants This is usually Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of Species based on evolutionary ancestryDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic