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Baraminology, otherwise known as discontinuity systematics, is a method of biological taxonomy and cladistics proposed by creationists for the study and classification of the created kinds.
At its heart, barimonology differs from mainstream cladistics and taxonomy in that while mainstream cladistics holds that all life descended from a single protocell, bariminology tracks the tree of life back to a finite number of discrete forms of life, as originally created by God.
Origin of the term
The term baraminology was originally proposed by Kurt P. Wise in 1990 to cover the study of baramins - in turn a word proposed by Frank L. Marsh in 1941 derived from the Hebrew words bara (create) and min (kind) to represent the different kinds described in the Bible in the Genesis descriptions of the creation and Noah's Ark, and the Leviticus and Deuteronomy division between clean and unclean.
Methodological terms
Baraminology aims to use four terms to distinguish kinds or groups: holobaramin, monobaramin, apobaramin, and polybaramin.
Holobaramin
A holobaramin is a entire group (past and present) sharing a common ancestry, and therefore a genetic relationship. For example, humans form a holobaramin, since (in creationist theory) they were created as a single kind and therefore share no ancestral or genetic relationship with other animals.
By contrast, the posutulate of universal common descent in the theory of evolution would suggest that there is only one holobaramin covering all organisms.
Monobaramin
A monobaramin is a part of a holobaramin. So, for example, dogs could be seen as a monobaramin from the holobaramin of the dog kind which originally included wolves.
Apobaramin
An apobaramin is a number of complete holobaramins grouped together. For example, all plants together would form an apobaramin since (in creationist theory) they were not a single kind of plant at the moment of their creation (at least fruit-bearing plants and grass can be distinguished) but there is no single holobaramin that includes both plants and animals.
Polybaramin
A polybaramin is a group made up of parts of different holobaramins. For example, the mammals currently alive in North America would form a polybaramin.