A Brief History of Taxonomy

Wherever we go, we always see that there are traces of organization. For example in the local market, products are well categorized by vendors not only to attract consumers but also to provide convenience for the sellers. In the library, books are also categorized based on their content for readers’ easier access. We also organize our own closets to easily pick the clothes that we wanted to wear.

So the question is, just like our closets, can we organize the millions of species in our planet? The answer is definitely yes. And the science behind categorizing and classifying organisms is known as taxonomy.

Taxonomy is considered to be biology’s unifying field. And perhaps, it is one of the most underrated field in the biological sciences. But let us remember that taxonomy is not merely on memorizing scientific names. Its primary objectives are to categorize organisms, seeks to establish how related one organism is to another, and assess the world’s biodiversity of more than 20 million species and counting. Hence, it requires logic and deep analyses when dealing with taxonomic studies.

Let us trace some of the milestones of this dynamic field.

§ Adam – considered by Christians to be the first taxonomist. In the book of Genesis 2:19-20, Adam gave names to ‘every creature’.

§ Chinese Emperor Shen Nung – sometime in 3000 BC, this Chinese emperor extensively sought to identify plants that can be used as medicine. Hence, we is widely considered as the father of Chinese medicine

§ Egyptians – the Egyptians had the most advanced medical science in the ancient world. In the hieroglyphics, specific plants were used to treat specific disorders

§ Aristotle – in the ancient Greece, Aristotle was first to classify living organisms. Some of his classification is still used to day. And because of his contribution, he is regarded as the father of biology

§ Theophrastus – Theophrastus was a student of Aristotle. In his book De Historia Plantarum, he classified all plants during his time

§ Plinius – a member of the roman army, Plinius wrote a 160-volume classification that provided plants their Latin name. Therefore he was considered as the ‘father of botanical latin’. During his time, Latin was the most widely spoken language

§ Caesalpino – based his classification on fruits and seed forms. He classified 1500 species of plants in his book De Plantis

§ Bauhin Brothers – the Bauhin brothers recognized the importance of genus and species levels. They were able to classify more than 6000 species

§ John Rey – documented more than 18000 species which includes birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, mammals and insects

§ Carl Linnaeus – Linnaeus’ books, Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae, revolutionized taxonomy. He introduced the binomial system of classification that simplifies the complex system of taxonomy during his time. For example, before him, a certain plant species’ name is Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatus pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti ("Plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and a terete scape"). But the Linnaean way of classifying this plant is Plantago media. Most of this system is still used today. Hence, Linnaeus is considered to be the father of modern taxonomy

§ John Baptiste-Lamarck – proposed an evolutionary idea known as “Lamarckism”. This idea states that characters of organisms were inherited from parents

§ Hugh Edwin Strickland – proposed a more elaborated law on zoological nomenclature in 1842. This was known as the Strickland Code. However, his proposal was later on abolished

§ Charles Darwin and Russel Alfred Wallace – in the late 1850s, these two rival naturalists independently launched the revolutionary theory of evolution

§ Ernst Haeckel and William August Eichler – both German scientists constructed what is known as the phylogenetic tree that is based on organisms’ morphological similarities and dissimilarities

§ Willi Hennig – in 1966, Willi Hennig proposed a more modern classification scheme known as cladistics. This method will only analyzed the relationship of organisms with high synapomorphies (similarities)

§ Present day – inventions of newer scientific equipment (such as the polymerase chain reaction/PCR) and development of various software allows the analysis of molecular genetic data for taxonomic studies

Just like any other scientific fields, taxonomy is a dynamic science. And with technological innovations, we expect that there will be more methods and techniques that we can expect in the not so distant future.

This is Edward Opena's Klassrum. #neverstoplearning