Timeline of zoology

This is a chronologically organized listing of notable zoological events and discoveries.

Ancient world

*28000 BC. Cave painting (e.g. Chauvet Cave) in southern France and northern Spain depicts animals in a stylized fashion. These European cave paintings depicted Mammoths (the same species later to be seen thawing from ice in Siberia).
*10000 BC. Humans (''Homo sapiens'') domesticated dogs, pigs, sheep, goats, fowl, and other animals in Europe, northern Africa and the Near East.
*6500 BC. The aurochs, ancestor of domestic cattle, would be domesticated in the next two centuries if not earlier (Obre I, Yugoslavia). This was the last major food animal to be tamed for use as a source of milk, meat, power, and leather in the Old World.

*3500 BC. Sumerian animal-drawn wheeled vehicles and plows are developed in Mesopotamia, the region called the "Fertile Crescent". Irrigation may also use animal power. Since Sumeria had no natural defenses, armies with mounted cavalry and chariots become important, increasing the importance of equines (horses and donkeys).
*2000 BC. Domestication of the silkworm in China.
*1100 BC. Won Chang (China), first of the Zhou emperors, stocked his imperial zoological garden with deer, goats, birds, and fish from many parts of the world. The emperor also enjoyed sporting events with the use of animals.
*850 BC. Homer (Greek) writes the epics Iliad and Odyssey, which both contain animals as monsters and metaphors (gross soldiers turned into pigs by the witch Circe), but also some correct observations on bees and fly maggots. Both epics make reference to mules.
*610 BC. Anaximander (Greek, 610 BC–545 BC) was a student of Thales of Miletus. He taught that the first life was formed by spontaneous generation in the mud. Later animals came into being by transmutations, left the water, and reached dry land. Man was derived from lower animals, probably aquatic. His writings, especially his poem ''On Nature'', were read and cited by Aristotle and other later philosophers, but are lost.
*563? BC. Buddha (Indian, 563?–483 BC) had gentle ideas on the treatment of animals. Animals are held to have intrinsic worth, not just the values they derive from their usefulness to man.
*500 BC. Empedocles of Agrigentum (Greek, 504–433 BC) reportedly rid a town of malaria by draining nearby swamps. He proposed the theory of the four humors and a natural origin of living things.

*500 BC. Alcmaeon (Greek, c. 500 BC) performed human dissections. He identified the optic nerve, distinguished between veins and arteries, and showed that the nose was not connected to the brain. He made much of the tongue and explained how it functioned. He also gave an explanation for semen and for sleep.
*500 BC. Xenophanes (Greek, 576–460 BC), a disciple of Pythagoras (?–497 BC), first recognized fossils as animal remains and inferred that their presence on mountains indicated the latter had once been beneath the sea. "If horses or oxen had hands and could draw or make statues, horses would represent the forms of gods as horses, oxen as oxen." Galen (130?–201?) revived interest in fossils that had been rejected by Aristotle, and the speculations of Xenophanes were again viewed with favor.
*470 BC. Democritus of Abdera (Greek, 470–370 BC) made dissections of many animals and humans. He was the first Greek philosopher-scientist to propose a classification of animals, dividing them into blooded animals (Vertebrata) and bloodless animals (Evertebrata). He also held that lower animals had perfected organs and that the brain was the seat of thought.
*460 BC. Hippocrates (Greek, 460?–377? BC), the "Father of Medicine", used animal dissections to advance human anatomy.
*440 BC. Herodotus of Halikarnassos (Greek, 484–425 BC) treated exotic fauna in his ''Historia'', but his accounts are often based on tall tales. He explored the Nile, but much of ancient Egyptian civilization was already lost to living memory by his time.
*384 BC. Aristotle's (Greek, 384–322 BC) books ''Historia Animalium'' (9 books), ', and ' set the zoological stage for centuries. He emphasized the value of direct observation, recognized law and order in biological phenomena, and derived conclusions inductively from observations. He believed that there was a natural scale of animals that ran from simple to complex. He made advances in marine biology, basing his writings on keen observation and rational interpretation as well as conversations with local Lesbos fishermen for two years, beginning in 344 BC. His account of male protection of eggs by the barking catfish was scorned for centuries until Louis Agassiz confirmed Aristotle's description.
*340 BC. Plato (Greek, 427–347 BC) held that animals existed to serve man, but they should not be mistreated because this would lead people to mistreat other people. Others who have echoed this opinion are St. Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and Albert Schweitzer.

*323 BC. Alexander the Great (Macedonian, 356–323 BC) collected animals when he was not busy conquering the known world. He is credited with the introduction of the peacock into Europe.
*70 BC. Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) (70–19 BC) was a famous Roman poet. His poems ''Bucolics'' (42–37 BC) and ''Georgics'' (37–30 BC) hold much information on animal husbandry and farm life. His ''Aeneid'' (published posthumously) has many references to the zoology of his time.
*36 BC. Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC) wrote ', a treatise that includes apiculture. He also treated the problem of sterility in the mule and recorded a rare instance in which a fertile mule was bred.
*50. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Roman, 4 BC–AD 65), tutor to Roman emperor Nero, maintained that animals have no reason, just instinct, a "stoic" position.

*77. Pliny the Elder (Roman, 23–79) wrote his ' in 37 volumes. This work is a catch-all of zoological folklore, superstitions, and some good observations.
*79. Pliny the Younger (Roman, 62–113), nephew of Pliny the Elder, inherited his uncle's notes and wrote on beekeeping.
*100. Plutarch (Roman, 46?–120) stated that animals' behavior is motivated by reason and understanding.
*131. Galen of Pergamum (Greek, 131?–201?), physician to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, wrote on human anatomy from dissections of animals. His texts were used for hundreds of years, gaining the reputation of infallibility.
*200 c. Various compilers in post-classical and medieval times added to the ' (or, more popularly, the ''Bestiary''), the major book on animals for hundreds of years. Animals were believed to exist in order to serve man, if not as food or slaves then as moral examples.

Middle Ages

*600 c. Isidorus Hispalensis (Spanish bishop of Seville) (560–636) wrote ', a compendium on animals that served until the rediscovery of Aristotle and Pliny. Full of errors, it nevertheless was influential for hundreds of years. He also wrote '.
*781. Al-Jahiz (Afro-Arab, 781–868/869), a scholar at Basra, wrote on the influence of environment on animals.
*901. Horses came into wider use in those parts of Europe where the three-field system produces grain surpluses for feed, but hay-fed oxen were more economical, if less efficient, in terms of time and labor and remained almost the sole source of animal power in southern Europe, where most farmers continued to use the two-field system.

*1244–1248. Frederick II von Hohenstaufen (Holy Roman Emperor) (1194–1250) wrote ' (''The Art of Hunting with Birds'') as a practical guide to ornithology.

*1244. Vincentius Bellovacensis (Vincent of Beauvais) (?–1264) wrote ' (1244–1254), a major encyclopedia of the 13th century. This work comprises three huge volumes, of 80 books and 9,885 chapters.
*1248. Thomas of Cantimpré‚ (Fleming, 1204?–1275?) wrote ', a major 13th-century encyclopedia.
*1254–1323. Marco Polo (Italian, 1254–1323) provided information on Asiatic fauna, revealing new animals to Europeans. "Unicorns" (which may actually have been rhinos) were reported from southern China, but fantastic animals were otherwise not included.
*1255–1270. Albertus Magnus of Cologne (Bavarian, 1206?–1280) (Albert von Bollstaedt or St. Albert) wrote '. He promoted Aristotle but also included new material on the perfection and intelligence of animals, especially bees.
*1304–1309. Petrus de Crescentii wrote ', a practical manual for agriculture with many accurate observations on insects and other animals. Apiculture was discussed at length.

*1492. Christopher Columbus (Italian) arrives in the New World. New animals soon begin to overload European zoology. Columbus is said to have introduced cattle, horses, and eight pigs from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola in 1493, giving rise to virtual devastation of that and other islands. Pigs were often set ashore by sailors to provide food on the ship's later return. Feral populations of hogs were often dangerous to humans.
*1519–1520. Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish, 1450?–1500), chronicler of Cortez's conquest of Mexico, commented on the zoological gardens of Aztec ruler Montezuma (1466–1520), a marvel with parrots, rattlesnakes, and other animals.
*1523. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés(Spanish, 1478–1557), appointed official historiographer of the Indies in 1523, wrote ''Sumario de la Natural Historia delas Indias'' (Toledo, 1527). He was the first to describe many New World animals, such as the tapir, opossum, manatee, iguana, armadillo, anteaters, sloth, pelican, and hummingbirds.

Modern world

*1551–1555. Pierre Belon (French, 1517–1564) wrote ' (1551) and ' (1555). This latter work included 110 animal species and offered many new observations and corrections to Herodotus. ' (1555) was his picture book, with improved animal classification and accurate anatomical drawings. In this he published a man's and a bird's skeleton side by side to show the resemblance. He discovered an armadillo shell in a market in Syria, showing how Muslims were distributing the finds from the New World.
*1551. Conrad Gessner (Swiss, 1516–1565) wrote ' (Tiguri, 4 vols., 1551–1558, last volume published in 1587) and gained renown. This work, although uncritically compiled in places, was consulted for over 200 years. He also wrote ' (1553) and ' (1563).
*1552 Edward Wotton (English, 1492–1555) published ', a work that influenced Gessner.
*1554–1555. Guillaume Rondelet (French, 1507–1566) wrote ' (1554) and ' (1555). He gathered vernacular names in hope of being able to identify the animal in question. He did go to print with discoveries that disagreed with Aristotle.
*1574. Johannes Faber (1576–1629), an early entomologist and member of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, gave the microscope its name.
*1578. Jean de Lery (French, 1534–1611) was a member of the French colony at Rio de Janeiro. He published ' (1578) with observations on the local fauna.
*1585. Thomas Harriot (English, 1560–1621) was a naturalist with the first attempted English colony in North America, on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. His ''Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia'' (1590) describes the black bear, gray squirrel, hare, otter, opossum, raccoon, skunk, Virginia and mule deer, turkeys, and horseshoe crab (''Limulus'').
*1589. José de Acosta (Spanish, 1539–1600) wrote ' (1589) and ' (1590), describing many animals from the New World previously unknown to Europeans.

17th century

*1600. In Italy a spider scare lead to hysteria and the tarantella dance by which the body cures itself through physical exertions.
*1602. Ulisse Aldrovandi (Italian, 1522–1605) wrote '. This and his other works include many scientific inaccuracies, but he used wing and leg morphology to construct his classification of insects. He is more highly regarded for his ornithological contributions.
*1604–1614. Francisco Hernández de Toledo (Spanish) was sent to study Mexican biota in 1593–1600, by Philip II of Spain. His notes were published in Mexico in 1604 and 1614, describing many animals to Europeans for the first time: coyote, buffalo, axolotl, porcupine, pronghorn antelope, horned lizard, bison, peccary, and the toucan. He also included figures of many animals for the first time, including the ocelot, rattlesnake, manatee, alligator, armadillo, and pelican.
*1607 (1612?). Captain John Smith (English), head of the Jamestown colony, wrote ''A Map of Virginia'' in which he describes the physical features of the country, its climate, plants and animals, and inhabitants. He describes the raccoon, muskrat, flying squirrel, and other animals.
*1617. Garcilaso de la Vega (Peruvian Spanish, 1539–1617) wrote ''Royal Commentaries of Peru'', containing descriptions of the condor, ocelots, puma, viscacha, tapir, rhea, skunk, llama, huanaco, paca, and vicuña.
*1620? North American colonists probably introduced the European honeybee, '' Apis mellifera'', into Virginia. By the 1640s these insects were also in Massachusetts. They became feral and advanced through eastern North America before the settlers.
*1628. William Harvey (English, 1578–1657) published ' (1628) with the doctrine of the circulation of blood (an inference made by him in about 1616).
*1634. William Wood (English) wrote ''New England Prospect'' (1634) in which he describes New England's fauna.
*1637. Thomas Morton (English, c. 1579–1647) wrote ''New English Canaan'' (1637) with treatments of 26 species of mammals, 32 birds, 20 fishes and 8 marine invertebrates.

*1648. Georg Marcgrave (?–1644) was a German astronomer working for Johann Moritz, Count Maurice of Nassau, in the Dutch colony set up in northeastern Brazil. His ' (1648) contains the best early descriptions of many Brazilian animals. Marcgrave used Tupi names that were later Latinized by Linnaeus in the 13th edition of the '' Systema Naturae''. The biological and linguistic data could have come from Moraes, a Brazilian Jesuit priest turned apostate.
*1651. William Harvey published ' (1651) with the aphorism ' on the title page.
*1661. Marcello Malpighi (Italian, 1628–1694) discovered capillaries (1661), structures predicted to exist by Harvey some thirty years earlier. Malpighi was the founder of microanatomy. He studied, among other things, the anatomy of the silkworm (1669) and the development of the chick (1672).
*1665. Robert Hooke (English, 1635–1703) wrote ''Micrographia'' (1665, 88 plates), with his early microscopic studies. He coined the term "cell".
*1668. Francesco Redi (Italian, 1621–1697) wrote ' (1668) and ' (1708). His refutation of spontaneous generation in flies is still considered a model in experimentation.
*1669. Jan Swammerdam (Dutch, 1637–1680) wrote ' (1669) describing metamorphosis in insects and supporting the performation doctrine. He was a pioneer in microscopic studies. He gave the first description of red blood corpuscles and discovered the valves of lymph vessels. His work was unknown and unacknowledged until after his death.
*1672. Regnier de Graaf (1641–1673) reported that he had traced the human egg from the ovary down the fallopian tube to the uterus. What he really saw was the follicle.
*1675–1722. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch, 1632–1723) wrote ', a treatise with early observations made with microscopes. He discovered blood corpuscles, striated muscles, human spermatozoa (1677), protozoa (1674), bacteria (1683), rotifers, etc.
*1691. John Ray (English, 1627–1705) wrote ' (1693), ' (1710), and ''The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation'' (1691). He tried to classify different animal species into groups largely according to their toes and teeth.
*1699. Edward Tyson (English, 1650–1708) wrote ' (or ''Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape and a Man'') (1699), his anatomical study of the primate. This was the first detailed and accurate study of the higher apes. Other studies by Tyson include the female porpoise, male rattlesnake, tapeworm, roundworm (''Ascaris''), peccary and opossum.

18th century

*1700. Félix de Azara (Spanish) estimated the feral herds of cattle on the South American pampas at 48 million animals. These animals probably descended from herds introduced by the Jesuits some 100 years earlier. (North America and Australia were to follow in this pattern, where feral herds of cattle and mustangs would explode, become pests, and reform the frontier areas.)

*1705. Maria Sybilla Merian (German, 1647–1717) wrote and illustrated her ' (') (1705). In this book she stated that '' Fulgora lanternaria'' was luminous.
*1734–1742. René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (French, 1683–1756) was an early entomologist. His ' (6 volumes) shows the best of zoological observation at the time. He invented the glass-fronted bee hive.
*1740. Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist, discovered the hydra which he considered to combine both animal and plant characteristics. His ' (1744) showed that freshwater polyps of ''Hydra'' could be sectioned or mutilated and still reform. Regeneration soon became a topic of inquiry among Réaumur, Bonnet, Spallanzani, and others.
*1745. Charles Bonnet (French-Swiss, 1720–1793) wrote ' (1745) and ' (1732). He confirmed parthenogenesis of aphids.
*1745. Pierre Louis M. de Maupertuis (French, 1698–1759) went to Lapland to measure the arc of the meridian (1736–1737). Maupertuis was a Newtonian. He generated family trees for inheritable characteristics (e.g., haemophilia in European royal families) and showed inheritance through both the male and female lines. He was an early evolutionist and head of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1744 he proposed the theory that molecules from all parts of the body were gathered into the gonads (later called "pangenesis"). ' was published anonymously in 1745. Maupertuis wrote ' in which he suggests a survival of the fittest concept: "Could not one say that since, in the accidental combination of Nature's productions, only those could survive which found themselves provided with certain appropriate relationships, it is no wonder that these relationships are present in all the species that actually exist? These species which we see today are only the smallest part of those which a blind destiny produced."
*1748. John Tuberville Needham, an English naturalist, wrote ''Observations upon the Generation, Composition, and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances'' in which he offers "proof" of spontaneous generation. Needham found flasks of broth teeming with "little animals" after having boiled them and sealed them, but his experimental techniques were faulty.

*1749–1804. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707–1788) wrote ' (1749–1804 in 44 vols.), which asserted that species were mutable. Buffon also drew attention to vestigial organs. He held that spermatozoa were "living organic molecules" that multiplied in the semen.
*1753. The British Museum was founded in the will of Sir Hans Sloane (English (born Ireland), 1660–1753). It would open its doors in 1759.
*1758. Albrecht von Haller (Swiss, 1708–1777) was one of the founders of modern physiology. His work on the nervous system was revolutionary. He championed animal physiology, along with human physiology. See his textbook ' (1758).
*1758. Carl Linnaeus (Swedish, 1707–1778) published the ' whose tenth edition (1758) is the starting point of binomial nomenclature for zoology.
*1759. Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733–1794) wrote ' (1759) that disagreed with the idea of preformation. He supported the doctrine of epigenesis as a way to resolve the problem of hybrids (mule, hinny, apemen) in preformation.

*1769. Edward Bancroft (English) wrote ''An Essay on the Natural History of Guyana in South America'' (1769) and advanced the theory that flies transmit disease.
*1771. Johann Reinhold Forster (German, 1729–1798) was the naturalist on Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775). He published a ''Catalogue of the Animals of North America'' (1771) as an addendum to Kalm's ''Travels''. He also studied the birds of Hudson Bay.
*1774. Gilbert White (English) wrote '' The natural history and antiquities of Selborne, in the county of Southampton'' (1774) with fine ornithological observations on migration, territoriality, and flocking.
*1775. Johan Christian Fabricius (Danish, 1745–1808) wrote ' (1775), ' (1776), ' (1778), ' (1792–1794, in six vols.), and later publications (to 1805), to make Fabricius one of the world's greatest entomologists.
*1776. René Dutrochet (French, 1776–1832) proposed an early version of the cell theory.
*1780. Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian, 1729–1799) performed artificial fertilization in the frog, silkmoth and dog. He concluded from filtration experiments that spermatozoa were necessary for fertilization. In 1783 he showed that human digestion was a chemical process since gastric juices in and outside the body liquefied food (meat). He used himself as the experimental animal. His work to disprove spontaneous generation in microbes was resisted by John Needham (English priest, 1713–1781).
*1780. Antoine Lavoisier

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