what are the features of systematics
Answers
Answer: As the sub-discipline of biology that investigates relationships of taxa, systematics is the foundation for comparative biology. Comparative biology is that type of study that attempts to relate features of one organism, or type of organism, to features in another type of organism. This always is a question of homology, or sameness due to common evolutionary origin. In systematic studies we hypothesize homology of features among taxa and then gather data to test these hypotheses. This is important because appearance alone is often not a good indicator that features in different taxa are homologous -- many times similar structures will evolve independently in different lineages. If they are homologous, we expect that they will share many things because of their common ancestry, while if they are not, it is impossible to predict just how similar they will be. Hence, any study that asks why or how about a feature in more than one taxon, and draws comparative conclusions about them, rests on a systematic foundation.