Biological classification was made its own field: taxonomy. Here are the people behind the classification methods we use today.
1. One of the earliest taxonomist was the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), who classified 500 animals into a group according to their habitats and body form. With a peculiar method, Aristotle assigned animals status based on the life expectancy of offspring and the structure of their lungs.
2. With the discovery of new species, Aristotle's methods could no longer function. With humankind's ignorance of DNA just yet, the traits used to classify organisms were solely based on what people could see rather than scientific reasoning. Naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) grouped about twenty thousand types of plants and animals. By using an impression amount description in his method, he managed to distinguish animals by their hoofs, nails, claws, teeth and toes. 3. 18th century taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78) is the most famous of all in history. Starting in the area as early as age eight, Linnaeus grew up to become noticed in the field of taxonomy. Known for classifying plants by their sexual parts, he added greatly to the taxonomy system we know today. One characteristic method he introduced was the binomial name, which involves assigning to an organism its genus and an adjective that describes its species somehow. He was the one who assigned the name of Homo sapiens sapiens to the human animal, which in latin translates to "the man who knows that he knows". 4. French anatomist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) and others added content to the methods of taxonomic classification. He was the responsible for creating the levels: family, order, class, phylum or division, and kingdom. They are similar to the set of classes we use today. 5. With the creation of two kingdoms, Animalia and Plantae, there was a proposal to create a third kingdom, Protista, by German naturalist Ernst Haeckel in 1866. This proposal did not succeed as it grouped together organisms that were too different. 6. In 1937, Edouard Chatton, a French marine biologist, introduced the terms prokaryotes (lacing nuclei) and eukaryotes (having nuclei and other organelles), making a significant contribution to biology. 7. In 1959, the popular though was that three kingdoms weren't enough. For a decade, there were various projects regarding a four-kingdom system. Cornell University ecologist Robert Whittaker's five-kingdom system, presented in 1969, included split single-celled life into pro- and eukaryotes as well as distinguished fungi from plants. His method recognized the Monera (prokaryotes), Protista (unicellular eukaryotes), Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. 8. In 1977, Archae is discovered by microbiologist Carl Worse. He found it out by examining RNA sequences of various microbes. Finding one that didn't fit the any of the pro- or eukaryotic signatures, he introduced the archaebacteria and proposed that a new and bigger taxonomic level, called the domain, embrace them. |