[1] The main Divisions of land plants are the Marchantiophyta (liverworts), Anthocerotophyta (hornworts), Bryophyta (mosses), Filicophyta (ferns), Sphenophyta (horsetails), Cycadophyta (cycads), Ginkgophyta (ginkgo)s, Pinophyta (conifers), Gnetophyta (gnetophytes), and the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms, flowering plants).
[2] In zoology, the term division is applied to an optional rank subordinate to the infraclass and superordinate to the legion and cohort.
Less commonly (as in Milner 1988[4]), living tetrapods are ranked as Divisions Amphibia and Amniota within the clade of vertebrates with fleshy limbs (Sarcopterygii).
In 1978, a group of botanists including Harold Charles Bold, Arthur Cronquist and Lynn Margulis proposed replacing the term "division" with "phylum" in botanical nomenclature, arguing that maintaining different terms for the same taxonomic rank across biological kingdoms created unnecessary confusion.
[5] The use of molecular methods, particularly 16S ribosomal RNA analysis, helped establish major bacterial divisions in the 1980s.