in the past, species descriptions and definitions have arisen through physiological characteristics like halotolerance and morphological characteristics like β-carotene content. however, this has led to numerous misidentifications, especially in marine species, since different conditions changing cell volumes, shapes, and colours make it very difficult to decide what organism is different to another. since 1999, molecular analysis is used as the primary tool in "dunalliela" identification due to its ability to analyze data independent of environmental factors . to characterize species, the 18s rna gene, internal transcriber spacer region (its), and ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase gene are being used. re-naming has already been done for several species, though it is an on-going process to create a reliable and accurate taxonomic system.