A taxonomic key is a series of questions used to identify organisms-- each question eliminates options of what the organism couldn't be until there's only one species left that must be the answer. For example:
1. Is the organism single-celled? Yes - go to 2. No - go to 3.
2. Does the organism photosynthesize? etc.
3. Is the organism larger than a breadbox? etc.
Real taxonomic keys, of course, are much more complex and usually don't employ the breadbox reference. I'm interested to see the similarity between taxonomic keys and interactive stories. Just as with interactive stories, I feel like taxonomic keys could benefit a lot by being digitized-- a computer program that links chosen answers with the next questions would be much more convenient than flipping through a taxonomic book. Such a program may exist, but I haven't come across it yet.
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