In yoga asana – the physical practice of yoga, there are a number of different ways to categorize the poses.
One is by their names – eg. animal poses (e.g. downward facing dog, scorpion, eagle), sage poses, (vishvamitra, virhaba) shape/anatomy poses (triangle, intense stretch, head-to-knee).
Another is directional, twists, folds, inversions, back bends etc.
Anatomical categorizations is another way to consider these poses – which muscle groups are they opening etc. This one is particularly crucial, in my view for sequencing a yoga class effectively so you can go into the peak pose with the correct muscle groups opened.