Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window The overall structure of this reference work is based on the classification of animals into naturally related groups, a discipline known as taxonomy or biosystematics. Taxonomy is the science through which various organisms are discovered, identified, described, named, classified and catalogued. It should be noted that in preparing this volume what might be termed a conservative approach was adopted, relying primarily on traditional animal classification schemes. 2nd editions, 2003