lmae (Arecaceae), Cruciferae (Brassicaceae), and Leguminosae (Fabaceae) are conserved alongside their standardized -aceae forms due to their historical significance and widesp

read use in the literature. Family names are typically formed from the stem of a type genus within the family. In zoology, when a valid family name is bas

ed on a genus that is later found to be a junior synonym, the family name may be maintained for stability if it was established before 1960. In botany, some family names that were found to be junior syno

nyms have been conserved due to their widespread use in the scientific literature. The family-group in zoological nomenclature includes several ranks: superfamily (-oidea), family (-idae), subfamily (-inae), and tribe (-ini). Under the principle of coordination, a name established at any of these ranks can be moved to another rank while retaining its original authorship and date, requiring only a change in suffix to reflect its new rank. New family descriptions are relatively rare in taxonomy, occurring in fewer than one in a hundred taxonomic publications. Such descriptions typically result from either the discovery of organisms with unique combinations of characters that do not fit existing families, or from phylogenetic analyses that reveal the need for reclassification. History The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called the seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families (familiae). The conc