History of classification
The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is given the epithet “the father of taxonomy” and his system of binomial nomenclature is still in use today. Linnaeus built on the foundations of classification set out by many predecessors including the Swiss polymath Gaspard Bauhin (1511-1582) and the Italian physician-philosopher-botanist Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603) who classified 6,000 and 1,500 different plants respectively. Linnaeus grouped living organisms together in a descending series of specialisation creating an elegant hierarchical system. The concept was embraced and a plethora of subject matter experts emerged to classify, define and name species. To date over 1.5 million species have been identified.
Theory Biological classification uses a structure (taxonomy) and naming convention (nomenclature) to group organisms together and define them. Each level (taxa) is hierarchical starting with domain and continuing down to species. The species is named by combining the genus with an epithet. This is binomial nomenclature. The same theory is used to build descriptions in the material master. Species is analogous to the noun modifier pair |