Identification inbiology is the process of assigning a pre-existingtaxon name to an individualorganism. Identification of organisms to individual scientific names (or codes) may be based on individualistic natural body features,[1] experimentally created individual markers (e.g., color dot patterns), or natural individualistic molecular markers (similar to those used inmaternity or paternity identification tests). Individual identification is used inecology,wildlife management andconservation biology. The more common form of identification is the identification of organisms tocommon names (e. g., "lion") orscientific name (e. g., "Panthera leo"). By necessity this is based on inherited features ("characters") of the sexual organisms, the inheritance forming the basis of defining a class. The features may, e. g., be morphological, anatomical, physiological, behavioral, or molecular.
The term "determination" may occasionally be used as a synonym for identification (e. g.),[2] or as in "determination slips".[3]
Identification methods may be manual orcomputerized and may involve usingidentification keys, browsing through fields guide that contain (often illustrated) species accounts, comparing the organism with specimens from natural history collections, or taking images to be analyzed and compared against apre-trainedknowledge base with species information.[4]