Carl von Linné, or Carl Linnaeus (1707–1788) was a Swedish physician, botanist, and zoologist who created a new system of classification for all living things. His first attempt at classifying plants and animals was published in 1735 as Systema Naturae. However, Linnaeus undertook several major revisions of this work and it was not until the tenth edition in 1758 that he was able to describe a systematic classification scheme where related species were grouped in genera, similar genera into orders, orders into classes, and so on. This sophisticated system of naming, ranking, and classifying organisms supplied the foundations of modern zoological taxonomy.
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Further Readings:
- Anderson, Margaret J. Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification. Rev. ed. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, 2009.
- Linnaeus, Carl. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. 10th ed. Stockholm: Laurentius Salvius, 1758. View digital version
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1758