History of Animal Systematics

I. Introduction

The history of taxonomy dates back to the origin of human language.

Western scientific taxonomy started in Greek some hundred years BC and is
here divided into prelinnaean and postlinnaean. The most important works are
cited and the progress of taxonomy is described up to the era of the Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus, who founded modern taxonomy. The development after
Linnaeus is characterized by a taxonomy that increasingly have come to reflect
the paradigm of evolution. The used characters have extended from
morphological to molecular.

Systematics is the scientific study of the kinds and diversity of organisms

and any and all relationships among them (Simpson, 1945).

Zoological classification is the ordering of animals into groups on the

basis of similarity and relationship.

II. Six Historical Periods (Ernst Mayr, 1991)

First Period: The Study of Local Faunas

Natives of most prominent tribes attached specific names to animals of
their home country. Tribes have usually have names for all fishes and for all
edible or poisonous invertebrates. Schemes to classify are usually rudimentary,
but binomial nomenclatures are found in native tribes of Asia and America, they
are not sole invention of Linnaeus.

Several early Greek scholars, notably Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)

enumerated kinds of animals, but there is no indication of a useful classification
in the remaining fragments of their work. Organisms were first classified more
than 2,000 years ago by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle (384-322 BC)
was the father of biological classification. He devoted himself almost entirely to
the study of zoology, in particular to the study of marine organisms. He not only
studied comparative morphology, but also paid much attention to embryology,
habits and ecology. He referred to such major groups of animals as birds,
fishes, whales and insects.
With the vigorous worldwide explorations and discoveries since the
fifteenth century, lead to an increase in the number of known kinds of animal
and plants. Publications of great encyclopedias of Conrad Gesner (1551-1558)
and Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 4 May 1605) followed Aristotles
rudimentary classification. John Ray an English naturalist (1627-1705) was the
first to apply the character weighting method to structural features in animals.
He used key characteristics, such as the shape and size of the bird beak, to
classify birds. He coined the word species as the ultimate unit of taxonomy.

Second Period: Linnaean Era

In 1735, Carl von Linnaeus published Systema Naturae, a new approach
to classifying nature that used nested hierarchies. Todays system is grounded
in this method. 1736: Linnaeus published a system of binomial nomenclature,
still in use today. For this reason, he is considered to be father of modern
taxonomy. Linnaeus divided all living things into two kingdoms: Plants and

Animals. Up until the 1960s, textbooks used the 2 Kingdom System to describe
the living world.

Third Period: The Empirical Approach

Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) launched an evolutionary theory
including inheritance of acquired characters. Few naturalists had considered
the invertebrates worthy of study. Lamarck studied these creatures and was
credited for inventing the word invertebrate and the classification of
invertebrates.
Georges Cuvier (1769 1832), a French naturalist and zoologist who
compared fossil animals with living animals and established the fields of
comparative anatomy and paleontology. His works focused on the total
independence of four major types of animals- vertebrates, mollusks, arthropods
and radiates.

Fourth Period: Darwin and Phylogeny

Darwins contribution, the Theory of Natural Selection, suggested that all
living organisms are related by descent. If we can understand patterns of
descent, we can design better nature-based classification systems. Ernst
Haeckel 1834 1919. Very inspired by Darwins Origin of Species. He coined
the terms: phylogeny, ecology, and the kingdom Protista

Fifth Period: Population Systematics

Natural selection acts on individuals, but populations evolve. The study
and comparison of intraspecific populations became the objective of population

systematics. It was labeled by J.S. Huxley as the New Systematics. The

population systematics understands that all organisms occur in nature as
members of populations and that specimen cannot be understood and properly
classified unless they are treated as samples of natural population.

Sixth Period: Current Trends

The use of electronic computers and associated endeavors form the
significant development of this period. Vigorous introduction of biochemical
techniques and growing realization among molecular biologists of the
importance of understanding the phylogeny of organisms as a basis for
understanding of the evolution of macromolecules. Systematists develop
classifications based on evolutionary relationships. They tend to look at
molecular data to examine genetic similarities and differences.
Molecular systematics analyzes hereditary molecular differences, mainly
in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary
relationships. The result of a molecular phylogenetic analysis is expressed in a
phylogenetic tree. Molecular phylogenetics is one aspect of molecular
systematics.

III. Conclusion

There are so many schemes that we can choose to use to classify

organisms. Many other classification schemes may be proposed in time. We
would therefore like to emphasize the following:

Classification is man-made, thus differences in opinion are to be

expected; and

Classification is arbitrary, thus changes are to be expected as

taxonomists are able to gather information about organisms.

Classification of organisms provides an easy scheme for species

identification and ensures an orderly system of documentation and compilation
of information about organisms. It allows the systematic retrieval of this
information when necessary. Moreover, we group organisms so we can better
appreciate their similarities and differences and use them to better understand
the changes that occurred among them through time.

IV. References
Mayr, Ernst (1991). Principles of Systematic Zoology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
ISBN 0-07-041144-1.
Principles of Animal Taxonomy. George Gaylord Simpson. Columbia
University Press, New York, 1961.