Biology Assignment: Obituary of a Pre-Darwin Scientific Thinker

This biology assignment presents an obituary of Carolus Linnaeus, a pre-Darwin scientist and the founder of Systema Naturae. The assignment details Linnaeus's life, contributions to taxonomy, and influence on modern biology. It highlights his binomial nomenclature system, classification of plants and animals, and his impact on the development of evolutionary theory. The obituary emphasizes his hierarchical classification system, dividing nature into kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, and species, which is still used today. It also discusses his scientific thinking, including his interest in botany, his work on classifying life, and his recognition of humans as primates. The assignment also references the works of other scientists and provides a comprehensive overview of Linnaeus's legacy and its lasting impact on the scientific community.

Running head: BIOLOGY OBITUARY
Biology obituary
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1BIOLOGY OBITUARY
Carolus Linneause, the great scientific thinker of the Pre-Darwin era and the founder of
the Systema Naturae, died on January 10, 1778. He has left behind a legacy where many
scientists further worked on his classification systems and made it more comprehensive today.
Today he is known as the national hero in Sweden and his work has been depicted in countless
biographies. His death concluded an evolutionary movement regarding the approach needed to
classify animals and plants. The main contribution of Linnaeus was that he laid the foundations
for the modern scheme of taxonomy. This scientific thinking began with natural theology as he
started experiment with species of plants and animals (Skott, 2019). His continued interest in
botany and his regular excursion to find new species points to his unwavering interest in the
study related to taxonomy.
Carolus Linnaeus was born on 23rd May, 1707 and died on 1778. Due to his interest in
botany, he became convinced that stamens and pistils are important for classification of plant.
His most important contribution was his work on taxonomy. He was the first thinker who tried
to classify life. However, his concepts differed from that of Aristotle. Aristotle (384-322 BC)
was the first father of taxonomy. He introduced two concepts of taxonomy namely bionomial
definitions and the classification or organisms. However, what was missing in Aristotle’s work
was that he did not used the binomial definition in his system of biological functions. This
innovation was seen much later after the development of modern science (Zeller & Göttert,
2019). When Linnaeus was born, there were many systems of classification. At that time, new
plants were constantly being discovered and renamed. His fondness for collecting plants was
since the childhood. Later on, when he returned to botany as his primary subject, he published
his most innovative work called the ‘System of Nature’ in 1735. It was a framework of
classification that divided all plants and animals through three kingdoms of nature. This included

2BIOLOGY OBITUARY
according to classes, orders, genera and species. This was followed by his work on species of
plants and grouping together of plants according to number of stamens in the flowers. In total, he
named 4, 400 animal and 7, 700 plant species using his binomial classification system (Muller-
Wille, 2018).
The main proposal of Linnaeus was that he classified nature into a hierarchy. He
proposed three broad groups namely kingdoms, classes and species. Kingdom involves a broad
category where he whole nature fits namely animals, plants and minerals. This was followed by
division of kingdoms into classes and classes into orders. The orders were further divided into
genera and then species. This system of classification is used even today. However, with
evolutionary development, few changes or additions in the level of hierarchy have occurred too.
For example, domain was not part of Linnaeus’s system of classification. Currently, all living
things are classified into Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya (Siddell et al., 2019). The main
approach that Linnaeus adapted during classifying living things was to look for similarities. After
publishing his Systema Naturae, he discussed about his work with other scientists too. Other
notable contributions of Linnaeus were that he was the first scientist to place humans in the
primate family and he was the founder of the science of ecology. He was knighted for his
scientific contribution by the King of Sweden in 1761 and he died at the age of 70 in the year
1778 (Müller-Wille, 2017).
Carl Linnaeus work has influenced many scientists community throughout the world. His
taxonomy enables biologist to group relates species into genealogical trees. This now represents
the evolutionary lineage of modern organisms. His work Sytema Naturae marked the beginning
of a true revolution. His systematic approach of classification standardized the nomenclature and
eliminated all ambiguous elements in it. Although his first version of the work has some

3BIOLOGY OBITUARY
limitations, his final version of the Systema Naturae was much more elaborate and complex
(Farrell, 2018). He discovered a new group called mammals after identifying presence of
mammary glands as an important distinction in some animals. He was always interest in going to
tours and excursions to collect new species. Apart from his exceptional judgment and scientific
theory related to evolution, he was a brilliant lecturer too and attracted large audience during his
lectures. Just like any other scientific and historical discoveries, his work was opposed by many.
However, after continuous dedication, his classification system received unanimous approval
(Skott, 2019).
References:

4BIOLOGY OBITUARY
Farrell, M. E. (2018). On the evolution of the species concept: Darwin's species
realism (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh).
Müller-Wille, S. (2017). Names and numbers:“data” in classical natural history, 1758–
1859. Osiris, 32(1), 109-128.
Muller-Wille, S. E. W. (2018). Linnaeus and the Love Life of Plants. Cambridge University
Press.
Siddell, S. G., Walker, P. J., Lefkowitz, E. J., Mushegian, A. R., Dutilh, B. E., Harrach, B., ... &
Krupovic, M. (2019). Binomial nomenclature for virus species: a consultation. Archives
of virology, 1-7.
Skott, C. (2019). Human Taxonomies: Carl Linnaeus, Swedish Travel in Asia and the
Classification of Man. Itinerario, 43(2), 218-242.
Zeller, U., & Göttert, T. (2019). The relations between evolution and domestication
reconsidered-Implications for systematics, ecology, and nature conservation. Global
Ecology and Conservation, e00756.