History of Classification
copyright cmassengale Early Taxonomists 2000 years ago, Aristotle was the first taxonomist Aristotle divided organisms into plants & animals He subdivided them by their habitat ---land, sea, or air dwellers copyright cmassengale
Aristotle’s Great Chain of being Aristotle thought that all matter was organized in a hierarchy. He put inanimate things like rocks at the bottom, and things like people at the top Man Realm of Being Woman Animals Plants Realm of Becoming Minerals Non Being
Early Taxonomists With the discovery of new continents containing new plants and animals, collecting animals and plants became popular as a hobby, leading to many different classification systems This created a need for a universal system of classification
copyright cmassengale Early Taxonomists John Ray, a botanist, was first to divide groups into subgroups using multiple characteristics This resulted in groups containing individuals that were very similar to each other copyright cmassengale
Early Taxonomists Joseph Pitton de Tournefort He is the first to use consistent naming for each species His names were very long descriptions in Latin telling everything about the plant Plantango foliis ovato-lanceolatus puesbentibus, spica cylindrical, scapo tereti Plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and terete scape
copyright cmassengale Carolus Linnaeus 1707 – 1778 18th century taxonomist Classified organisms by their structure Classified using 3 kingdoms with 5 ranks copyright cmassengale
copyright cmassengale Carolus Linnaeus Called the “Father of Taxonomy” Developed the modern system of naming known as binomial nomenclature Two-word name (Genus & species) copyright cmassengale
Modern Systems With Darwin’s theory of natural selection, scientists shifted the focus of classification from structural similarity to evolutionary relatedness. So organisms were placed in groups together because they are related, not because they look alike.
Our classification is still changing Monera= Archaebacteria and Eubacteria 3 domains= Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryota Scientists are still learning more and changing our classification as they go.