2. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
CARL LINNAEUS (1707–78)
en.wikipedia.org
▸ Born on a farm in Sweden
▸ Professor of Botany at Uppsala
University
▸ The ‘father’ of modern taxonomy
▸ Also known as Linné, Linneus, and
Charles or Carolus Linnaeus
3. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THE LINNAEAN HIERARCHY
Regnum (Kingdom)
Classis (Class)
Ordo (Order)
Genus
Species
Humans are:
Animals (Animalia)
Mammals (Mammalia)
Primates (Primata)
Man (Homo)
Wise or rational (sapiens)
‣ Phylum and Family added in the 19th century
‣ Linnaean system of classi
fi
cation is partly natural and partly arti
fi
cial
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/
4. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
NATURAL SYSTEM (1735)
▸ Latin: Systema naturae
▸ 13 editions
▸ One “Empire” of Nature
▸ Three “Kingdoms”
▸ Edition 10 (1758) is the beginning of zoological
nomenclature (as decided in 1840)
Wikipedia
5. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THREE KINGDOMS
▸ Regnum Lapidem – Mineral
Kingdom
▸ Regnum Vegetabile – Plant
Kingdom
▸ Regnum Animale – Animal
Kingdom
▸ The
fi
rst group dealt with in
the Animal kingdom is
Primates (Latin for “
fi
rst rank”,
in case you ever wondered
why we are called that)
7. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THE POLITICAL NATURE OF LINNAEUS
▸ The ranks and the names of the taxa are not coincidentally
political
▸ He was funded by the state and conferred a knighthood by
the Swedish king
▸ He also used his status to gain specimens and send disciples
out to collect
▸ His social and scienti
fi
c status meant he could access
anything, in return for sharing specimens
8. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THE SEXUAL SYSTEM
▸ An “arti
fi
cial system” based on the
“fructative apparatus” of
fl
owers
▸ Regarded as scandalous by
contemporaries
▸ It was placed on the Index of
Prohibited Books by the Catholic
Church
9. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
ACCEPTING SEX
▸ Linnaeus “can only be un
fi
t for the perusal of such
females as still believe the legend of their nursery,
that children are dug out of a parsley-bed; who have
never been at church, or looked into a Bible, — and are
totally ignorant that, in the present state of the world,
two sexes are necessary to the production of animals.”
Anna Seward(authorof BlackBeauty),1803
10. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
NAMES [NOMENCLATURE]
▸ Linnaeus replaced multinomial nomenclature with a
system of binomial nomenclature
▸ A two-part scienti
fi
c name
▸ Genus + species
11. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THE BINOMIAL
▸ The tomato:
▸ From:
▸ Solanum caule inermi herbaceo, foliis
pinnatis incisis
▸ To:
▸ Solanum lycopersicum, Linné
12. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
HUMANS
▸ Order: Primates
▸ Genus: Homo
▸ Species:
▸ Homo sapiens
▸ Homo troglodytes
▸ Homo lar
▸ By the 1766 edition of the Systema Naturae he had added the
orangutan and chimpanzee
Four 'humanoid'
fi
gures: (L-R) Troglodyta Bontu, Lucifer Aldrovandi, Satyrus Tulpii and Pygmaeus
Edwardi from thesis CV 'Anthropomorpha' by Christianus Emmanuel Hoppius, 1760, published
by Linnaeus in volume 6 of Amoenitates academicae (Stockholm, 1763).
13. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
LINNAEUS ON HUMANS
“It is not pleasing that I placed humans among the
primates, but man knows himself. Let us get the words
out of the way. It will be equal to me by whatever
name they are treated. But I ask you and the whole
world a generic difference between men and simians
in accordance with the principles of Natural History. I
certainly know none. If only someone would tell me
one! If I called man an ape or vice versa I would bring
together all the theologians against me. Perhaps I
ought to scienti
fi
cally,”
[Letter to Gmelin, February 25, 1747, after a Lutheran Archbishop had accused him of impiety]
14. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
HUMANS WERE SEPARATED FROM
▸ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840)
reclassi
fi
ed apes into Simia (now Pan) in 1779.
▸ Blumenbach also classi
fi
ed
fi
ve human races,
the system now used in the US
▸ Caucasian
▸ Mongolian
▸ Malayan
▸ Ethiopian [Negro]
▸ American [Native Americans]
Blumenbach: Wikipedia.org
15. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
PLANT SPECIES (1753)
▸ Latin: Species plantarum
▸ 6 editions
▸ Edition 1 is the beginning of botanical
nomenclature
en.wikipedia.org
16. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
LINNAEUS AND ECOLOGY
▸ Published The economy of nature
(Oeconomia naturae) in 1749
▸ De
fi
ned the economy of nature as
the Creator’s wise arrangement
and deposition of all things
according to which they ful
fi
l
their purpose for the glory of
God and the happiness of Man
https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/22820211781.jpg
18. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
THE VALUEOF LINNAEUS’ SYSTEM
▸ Enlightenment goal to
share information
▸ Linnaean systems
relatively simple to use
and revise
▸ Useful for trade, especially
in horticulture
▸ Useful for scienti
fi
c priority
https://www.thoughtco.com/linnaean-classi
fi
cation-system-4126641
19. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
LINNAEUS IN BRITAIN
▸ Introduced to Britain by Andreas
Solander
▸ Supported by Sir James Edward Smith
▸ First translated into English in the
1750s
▸ Linnean Society of London (1788
onwards) [Note spelling]
▸ Acquired Linneaus’ collection after his
death
20. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
COMTE DE BUFFON (1709–88)
▸ French naturalist
▸ Rejected the arti
fi
ciality of the
sexual system
▸ Different characters create
different groups
▸ Not sure which characters to
use
en.wikipedia.org
21. COLLECTING AND CLASSIFYING
BIBLIOGRAPHY
▸ McOuat, Gordon R. 2001. “Cataloguing power: delineating
‘competent naturalists’ and the meaning of species in the
British Museum.”
The British Journal for the History of
Science 34:1–28.
▸ Linnaeus and Solander @ PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET: an
Australian Perspective – an excellent introductory site
