For over twenty years the world of taxonomy has been riddled with controversy. This might be interpreted as a healthy state of affairs in any scientific discipline: but it is only recently that the debate has had significant repercussions for Neo-Darwinism in general. Doubt has been cast on the view that the history of life, as indicated by the fossil record, is consistent with the evolutionary process of genetic mutation, guided towards the adaptation of populations by natural selection. More specifically, a small group of taxonomists, known as the ‘transformed cladists’, have questioned Darwin's fundamental assumption in The Origin that the natural hierarchy in nature was evidence for evolution. Claims that Darwin got it wrong have abounded, and have been enhanced by findings from other areas such as developmental biology, macroevolutionary theory, and analysis of speciation models.

For the Neo-Darwinian, insult has been added to injury by the re-emergence, especially in the USA, of creationist doctrines, which attempt to challenge evolutionary theory on scientific grounds, interpreting well-established scientific facts in a manner that is consistent with creationist thinking. Not surprisingly, admist all this turmoil, accuracy of fact and argument have been traded off against sensationalist media coverage.

Some have welcomed taxonomy's entry into the limelight, others have been horrified at the prospect of the disappearance of long cherished traditions, such as the role of paleontology in evolutionary studies. The status of evolutionary theory is apparently at stake.