Philatax
Philat-tax (pronounced: "flat-tax") combines Philat-ely (the study of postage stamps and stamp history) and Tax-onomy (the science of classification of living and extinct organisms).
Philately | Taxonomy |
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It is estimated that there are around 500,000 different postage stamps that have been issued world-wide by approximately 700 different countries. Some countries no longer exist (Czechoslovakia, East Germany) , some countries have changed their names (Ceylon/Sri Lanka, Burma/Myamar). Often countries have issued stamps commemorating a species more than once, for example when they are commemorating their national animal (United States: the eagle), plant (Canada: the maple tree) or flower (France: the iris). To display the connection (if one even exists) between a unique biological species and an issued postage stamp is not practical. Nevertheless, an attempt has been made on this website to display stamps issued by countries that commemorate species in three of the seven biological kingdoms (animalia, plantae and fungi). For those species that have not been recognized by any country, I've created a fictional country, "Philatia," to commemorate them. | The study of taxonomy classifies all biological life and places each unique species into a biological kingdom. A widely accepted model* of all living things (which is being used on this website), classifies species in seven different kingdoms:
Total: over 2 million unique classified biological species. Scientists point out that there are millions of species yet to be classified. |
Click on the image of a stamp (on the left) or the image of a species (right) to see the connection.