Question

What is the difference between phenon and taxon?

Answer 1

There are many different kinds of organisms all around us. Some are visible with the naked eye, while others are not. Biodiversity is made up of various plants, animals, and microorganisms. The organism is correctly described and named so that it is known by the same name all over the world. Each name is divided into two parts: generic and specific.

Complete answer:
A phenon is a group of organisms recognized solely on the basis of similarity of characteristics, regardless of biological interaction or genetic relatedness; (in later usage) specifically a grouping of organisms established by phenetics or numerical taxonomy.

A taxon is a unit of classification in the science of taxonomy. Taxa are the hierarchical divisions of a species, ranging from Kingdom to subspecies. In the classification of plants, protists, and animals, some taxonomic categories are universally classified. They are arranged in the following order: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, and subspecies.

The difference between phenon and taxon is as follows:

phenon	Taxon
A phenon is a group of organisms that are recognized solely on the basis of similarity of characteristics, regardless of biological interaction or genetic relatedness.	A taxon is a group of similar and genetically related individuals who differ in certain ways from other groups.
Ex: Members of the evening primrose family (Onagraceae) and the mustard family (Brassicaceae) both have four petals and four sepals—they are a phenon, but they are in completely different orders of plants and are not closely related.	Ex: In ascending order, the basic level of classification is species, followed by genus, family, order, class, phylum, or division.

Note: The scientific study of naming, defining (circumscribing), and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics is known as taxonomy. Organisms are classified as taxa, and these taxa are assigned a taxonomic rank; groups of the same rank can be aggregated to form a more inclusive group of higher rank, resulting in a taxonomic hierarchy.