Because of their asaccharolytic nature, and a general paucity of positive results in routine biochemical tests, laboratory identification of the Fusobacteriota has been difficult.

However, the application of novel molecular biological techniques to taxonomy has established a number of new species, together with the subspeciation of Fusobacterium necrophorum and F. nucleatum, and provided new methods for identification.

Since the first reports of Fusobacteriota in the late nineteenth century, the variety of species names has led to some confusion within the genera Fusobacterium and Leptotrichia.

However, newer methods of investigation have led to a better understanding of the taxonomy, with the description of several new species of Fusobacteriota.

[4] The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LSPN)[5] and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).