Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnæus
Carl Linnaeus was a great scientist who made breakthroughs in botany, zoology, medicine and, most importantly, biology. He was one of the greatest scientists of his time. Even to this day, his system of naming organisms is used all over the world, and his theory in classification is still the most significant. Linnaeus was born on May the 23rd 1707 and he died on January the 10th 1778, at seventy years old. He lived in Sweden and studied in three different Swedish universities to acquire his vast knowledge. From a young age, Linnaeus showed a great interest in plants, and so received the title “the little botanist”. At university, he studied medicine, which was based around plants and herbs at the time, meaning that he had a good knowledge about plants. Linnaeus introduced a brand new classification system which proved to be much more useful than the previous classification systems. He also introduced a system of naming each and every organism to make it easy for people around the world to identify an organism. To publish his ideas on his system of classification, Linnaeus published some books which are now very famous. They include the “Systema Naturae” and the “Species Plantarum”.
Linnaeus’ System of Classification
The classification system which Carl Linnaeus devised in the 17th century has proved to be very useful in the field of taxonomy and for the taxonomists of today. Before the Linnaean system of classification was introduced (which falls under the classification of biological/natural classification), artificial classification methods were the most significant ways of identifying an organism. Artificial classification was the system in which early scientists would use only one characteristic or feature to classify a group of organisms. This created a problem, as many very different organisms ended up being in the same group. Artificial classification could include a salmon (a fish), a penguin (a bird), a whale (a
Carl Linnaeus was a great scientist who made breakthroughs in botany, zoology, medicine and, most importantly, biology. He was one of the greatest scientists of his time. Even to this day, his system of naming organisms is used all over the world, and his theory in classification is still the most significant. Linnaeus was born on May the 23rd 1707 and he died on January the 10th 1778, at seventy years old. He lived in Sweden and studied in three different Swedish universities to acquire his vast knowledge. From a young age, Linnaeus showed a great interest in plants, and so received the title “the little botanist”. At university, he studied medicine, which was based around plants and herbs at the time, meaning that he had a good knowledge about plants. Linnaeus introduced a brand new classification system which proved to be much more useful than the previous classification systems. He also introduced a system of naming each and every organism to make it easy for people around the world to identify an organism. To publish his ideas on his system of classification, Linnaeus published some books which are now very famous. They include the “Systema Naturae” and the “Species Plantarum”.
Linnaeus’ System of Classification
The classification system which Carl Linnaeus devised in the 17th century has proved to be very useful in the field of taxonomy and for the taxonomists of today. Before the Linnaean system of classification was introduced (which falls under the classification of biological/natural classification), artificial classification methods were the most significant ways of identifying an organism. Artificial classification was the system in which early scientists would use only one characteristic or feature to classify a group of organisms. This created a problem, as many very different organisms ended up being in the same group. Artificial classification could include a salmon (a fish), a penguin (a bird), a whale (a
References: To complete this report, I have used many sources, such as the internet, books and previous schoolwork. Websites I have used: • Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/biographies/linnaeus/index.html • Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_classification, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus • Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778: http://www.linnaeus.c18.net/Doc/lbio.php Books I have used: • “OCR Gateway Biology”, edited by Bob McDuell