History of Taxonomy

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History of Taxonomy

Taxonomy has a long history, spanning the course of over 2,000 years.

It has grown and developed into one of the major branches of biology.

Today, it is a universal methodology of grouping organisms according

to their characteristics and their evolutionary history. (Source:

Modern Biology 337)

One of the oldest known systems of classification is that of

Aristotle, who lived around 300 B.C. Dichotomies, or polar opposites,

were what Aristotle based his division of the complexity of life upon.

He divided organisms into two primary groups: animals and plants.

Then, he applied his dichotomy-based classification to these two

groups. For instance, Aristotle divided animals into ones whose bodies

contained blood and those whose bodies did not (as an extra note of

interest, the division between vertebrates and invertebrates roughly

corresponds to this classification). Aristotle also did a lot of work

on plants, but unfortunately, most of that work was lost. However,

Theophrastus, a pupil of his, studied plants in his work Inquiry into

Plants (trans. 1916), and in it, used Aristotle's taxonomic approach.

Theophrastus organized plants based on their shape (i.e. trees,

shrubs, and herbs). Later on, the Greek physician Dioscorides

developed more realistic approaches to classification. As an example,

he separated medicinal herbs from those used in making perfumes.

(Microsoft Encarta 2003, Classification)

As time passed, more and more organisms were discovered. During the

sixteenth century, Andrea Cesalpino, an Italian botanist, became the

first scientist to classify plants purely on characteristics of their

structur...

... middle of paper ...

...ntists

today. Of course, differences are inevitable. Modern taxnomists focus

a lot on the molecular phylogeny, or evolutionary history, of an

organism. Yet, Linnaeus's work is still helpful, because by

classifying organisms based on features that largely influenced by

genes, Linnaeus provided several clues of common ancestry (Source:

Modern Biology 339).

Works Cited

- Binomial Nomenclature. Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. March 17th,

2003.

.

- "Classification," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2003. CD-ROM.

Microsoft

Corporation © 2003.

- "History of Taxonomy" Modern Biology. 2002.

- The Linnaean System. Dinosaur and Paleontology Dictionary.

1996-2003.

<

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Linnaeus.shtml>.

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