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Carolus Linnaeus was a Swedish naturalist. He created two scientific systems: the system for classifying plants and animals and the system for naming all living things. Linnaeus is also called the Father of Systematic Botany. Botany is the study of plants.
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus and Species
- Constant Evolution
When Linnaeus first described his system, he named only two kingdoms – animals and plants. Today, scientists think there are at least five kingdoms – animals, plants, fungi, protists (very simple organisms) and monera (bacteria). Some scientists now support the idea of a sixth kingdom – viruses – but this is being contested and argued around the wo...
Below the kingdom is the phylum (plural phyla). Within the animal kingdom, major phyla include chordata (animals with a backbone), arthropoda (includes insects) and mollusca (molluscs such as snails). Phyla have also been developed and reorganised since the original work by Linnaeus – as scientists discover more species, more categories and subcate...
Each phylum is then divided into classes. Classes within the chordata phylum include mammalia (mammals), reptilia (reptiles) and osteichthyes (fish), among others.
The class will then be subdivided into an order. Within the class mammalia, examples of an order include cetacea (including whales and dolphins), carnivora (carnivores), primates (monkeys, apes and humans) and chiroptera (bats).
From the order, the organism will be classified into a family. Within the order of primates, families include hominidae (great apes and humans), cercopithecidae (old world monkeys such as baboons) and hylobatidae (gibbons and lesser apes).
Finally, the classification will come to the genus (plural genera) and species. These are the names that are most commonly used to describe an organism. One outstanding feature of the Linnean classification system is that two names are generally sufficient to differentiate from one organism to the next. An example within the primate family is the g...
While this system of classification has existed for over 300 years, it is constantly evolving. Classification in the 1700s was based entirely on the morphological characteristics (what something looks like) of the organism. Those that looked most alike were put closest together in each category. This can be depicted as a tree, with the diverging br...
Linnaean system of classification. Living organisms are classified into groups depending on their characteristics. This system was developed in the eighteenth century by Carl Linnaeus. The ...
Revise Darwin’s and Wallace’s theory of evolution, natural selection, genetic modification and the Linnaean system of classification.
He explains his new classification system, which is known as taxonomy, and how it helps us determine what an organism is. The naming is decided by their genus and species.
Scientists use an internationally accepted system for classifying and naming organisms. The system is based on the classification method introduced in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist regarded as the founder of modern taxonomy.
