1. History of Classification

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Early Taxonomists
2000 years ago, Aristotle was the first taxonomist
Aristotle divided organisms into plants & animals
He subdivided them by their habitat ---land, sea, or air dwellers
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3. Aristotle’s Great Chain of being
Aristotle thought that all matter was organized in a hierarchy.
He put inanimate things like rocks at the bottom, and things like people at the top
Man
Realm of Being
Woman
Animals
Plants
Realm of Becoming
Minerals
Non Being

4. Early Taxonomists
With the discovery of new continents containing new plants and animals, collecting animals and plants became popular as a hobby, leading to many different classification systems
This created a need for a universal system of classification

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Early Taxonomists
John Ray, a botanist, was first to divide groups into subgroups using multiple characteristics
This resulted in groups containing individuals that were very similar to each other
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6. Early Taxonomists Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
He is the first to use consistent naming for each species
His names were very long descriptions in Latin telling everything about the plant
Plantango foliis ovato-lanceolatus puesbentibus, spica cylindrical, scapo tereti
Plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and terete scape

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Carolus Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
18th century taxonomist
Classified organisms by their structure
Classified using 3 kingdoms with 5 ranks
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Carolus Linnaeus
Called the “Father of Taxonomy”
Developed the modern system of naming known as binomial nomenclature
Two-word name (Genus & species)
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9. Modern Systems
With Darwin’s theory of natural selection, scientists shifted the focus of classification from structural similarity to evolutionary relatedness.
So organisms were placed in groups together because they are related, not because they look alike.

10. Our classification is still changing
Monera= Archaebacteria and Eubacteria
3 domains= Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryota
Scientists are still learning more and changing our classification as they go.