Carl Linnaeus: Classification System PDF

STAGE 6 Unit focus: Classification Text focus: Information Text Carl Linnaeus Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is remembered for his work in creating a system of classification...

STAGE 6 Unit focus: Classification Text focus: Information Text Carl Linnaeus Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is remembered for his work in creating a system of classification (also called a ‘taxonomy’) for the natural world. His remarkable accomplishment was in recognising that all of the diverse and complex organisms in the natural world could be organised into hierarchical groups according to shared characteristics. By looking at what similar organisms had in common, he paved the way for a far deeper understanding of life on Earth and he also helped ensure that there is a shared way of naming species around the world. Linnaeus was born in 1707 in the peaceful countryside of southern Sweden. From a young age, his father, a minister, encouraged his love of plants and the young Carl learned the names of the plants in his garden. This was no easy task: at that time plants were named in Latin and the lengthy titles were based on descriptions of each individual plant. To make ma ers even more complicated, different names were used in different countries. Nonetheless, Carl was passionate about the natural world around him and, indeed, he would often neglect his schoolwork to focus on memorising the names of plants. Carl’s love of plants led him to study medicine – a field which was, in the 18th century, very much reliant on plants and herbs to heal the sick. He continued his work in botany (the study of plants) including an expedition to Lapland to study the plants there. Over six months he covered 2000km on foot and by horseback whilst collecting samples and making notes on the plants, minerals and rocks he found. He next went to the Netherlands to finish his studies and, whilst there, published the first edition of his book ‘Systema Naturae’. In it, he laid down his system of organising the natural world. He identified the three kingdoms of nature as stones (or minerals), animals and plants and then broke each kingdom into further categories. He also developed a new way of naming plants – a simple two name system to replace the unwieldy and confusing naming conventions of the past. This naming system is called a ‘binomial’ system (bi meaning two and nomial meaning name). This naming system is still in use today: species are named according to their genus and species such that humans are Homo sapiens for example. This system all resources ©2022 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com means that there is a common language for talking about species all around the world. It also highlights related species: Canis familiaris (dog) shares half its name with Canis lupus (wolf) and Canis latrans (coyote) for example. Linnaeus married and became a doctor and then a university lecturer all the while continuing to add to his life’s work on taxonomy. Systema Naturae was expanded until, in its tenth and final edition in 1758, it ran to 2000 pages and included around 7700 plants and 4400 animals. Although his system has been refined and added to, it did however lay down the basic principles of how we organise life on Earth today. He also planted the seeds for Darwin’s work on evolution. Linnaeus became Carl von Linné in 1761 when he was knighted by the King of Sweden. He lived until the age of 70 but died in Sweden in 1778. RETRIEVAL FOCUS 1. What job did Carl’s father have? 2. How long did Carl spend on his trip to Lapland? 3. What three kingdoms of life did Linnaeus identify? 4. What is a wolf called in Linnaeus’s system? 5. When was the last edition of the Systema Naturae published? VIPERS QUESTIONS V What word in the introduction is closest in meaning to achievement? V What does hierarchical tell us about how the groups are organised? I What evidence was there that Linnaeus was not an easy schoolboy? S What is the binomial naming system and how does it help identify which species are closely related? V What does unwieldy tell us about the way species were named prior to Linnaeus? all resources ©2022 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com