Systema Naturae by Carl von Linné

Carl von Linné (* 23. Mai 1707, † 10. Januar 1778)

The Swedish scientist Carl von Linné laid the essential foundation for the scientific classification and naming of animal and plant species with his work 'Systema Naturae'. First published in 1735, the book contained only a few pages on the three natural kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals (assumed by Linné). The last, 12th edition from 1768, described more than 15,000 plant and animal species. Carl von Linné has practically extended his entire life through the 'Systema Naturae', which to a great extent is still valid today or serves as a basis.

The classification according to Linné looks like this: Empire (animals, plants, minerals), class (amphibians, fish, insects, mammals, worms, birds), order, genus, species and variety. But beware, because this classification is no longer up to date. The highest category for classification now represents the domain (archaea, bacteria, eukaryotes). Furthermore, minerals could not prevail as a separate empire. Finally, the variety falls completely out of the current nomenclature.

In the course of history, it often came to change the system or for the re-classification of species in the classification. The possibilities for examining relationships for the purpose of precise assignment have increased immensely in recent years. Using DNA analysis, animals can be relatively reliably associated with their close relatives. But even if some of Linnaeus 'Systema Naturae' proved wrong, his oeuvre is probably the most important and groundbreaking work for biology in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In different languages ​​animals have z.T. completely different names. In principle, to be able to conduct a scientific discourse on animals and plants, each species must in principle receive a firm and globally valid name. He consciously gave Carl von Linnaeus every known animal and plant species its own scientific name. For this he chose Latin as a language, the then widespread universal language among scholars. To date, the biological nomenclature for naming and classification is in Latin. This is the only way to ensure that two researchers from different countries with different languages ​​think the same creature when they communicate with each other.

By the way, everyone has heard of the scientific name for us humans: Homo sapiens.

Summary

The work 'Systema Naturae' by Carl von Linné contains a scheme (taxonomy) for the classification of living beings over six levels: Empire, Class, Order, Species, Species and Variety.

The binary nomenclature allows the scientific naming of animal and plant species.