' (originally in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

written ' with the

ligature Ligature may refer to: Language * Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy) * Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words Medicine * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...

æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

(1707–1778) and introduced the

Linnaean taxonomy Linnaean taxonomy can mean either of two related concepts: # The particular form of biological classification (taxonomy) set up by Carl Linnaeus, as set forth in his ''Systema Naturae'' (1735) and subsequent works. In the taxonomy of Linnaeus th ...

. Although the system, now known as

binomial nomenclature In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers, Gaspard and

Johann Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Graciou ...

, Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout his book. The first edition was published in 1735. The full title of the 10th edition (1758), which was the most important one, was ', which appeared in English in 1806 with the title: "A General System of Nature, Through the Three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, Systematically Divided Into their Several Classes, Orders, Genera, Species, and Varieties, with their Habitations, Manners, Economy, Structure and Peculiarities". The tenth edition of this book (1758) is considered the starting point of

zoological nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

. In 1766–1768 Linnaeus published the much enhanced 12th edition, the last under his authorship. Another again enhanced work in the same style titled "'" was published by

Johann Friedrich Gmelin Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...

between 1788 and 1793. Since at least the early 20th century, zoologists have commonly recognized this as the last edition belonging to this series.

Overview

Linnaeus (later known as "Carl von Linné", after his ennoblement in 1761) published the first edition of in the year 1735, during his stay in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. As was customary for the

scientific literature Scientific literature encompasses a vast body of academic papers that spans various disciplines within the natural and social sciences. It primarily consists of academic papers that present original empirical research and theoretical ...

of its day, the book was published in

. In it, he outlined his ideas for the

hierarchical classification Hierarchical classification is a system of grouping things according to a hierarchy. In the field of machine learning, hierarchical classification is sometimes referred to as instance space decomposition, which splits a complete multi-class clas ...

of the natural world, dividing it into the animal kingdom (), the plant kingdom (), and the " mineral kingdom" (). Linnaeus's lists only about 10,000 species of organisms, of which about 6,000 are plants and 4,236 are animals. According to the historian of botany William T. Stearn, "Even in 1753 he believed that the number of species of plants in the whole world would hardly reach 10,000; in his whole career he named about 7,700 species of flowering plants." Linnaeus developed his classification of the plant kingdom in an attempt to describe and understand the natural world as a reflection of the logic of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

's creation. His

sexual system A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species. The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms. Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive ...

, where species with the same number of

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s were treated in the same group, was convenient but in his view artificial. Linnaeus believed in God's creation and that there were no deeper relationships to be expressed. The classification of animals was more natural . For instance,

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s were for the first time placed together with other

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s, as

Anthropomorpha Anthropomorpha (original spelling: Antropomorpha) is a defunct taxon, replaced by ''Primates''. The order was established by Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of his book Systema Naturae (1735) for genera ''Homo'' (humans), '' Simia'' (monkeys ...

. They were also divided into four varieties, as distinguished by

skin color Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in ...

and corresponding with the four known

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

s and temperaments. The tenth edition expanded on these varieties with

behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...

al and

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

traits that the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

acknowledges as having cemented colonial

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

s and provided one of the foundations for

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that the Human, human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "race (human categorization), races", and that empirical evi ...

. As a result of the popularity of the work, and the number of new specimens sent to him from around the world, Linnaeus kept publishing new and ever-expanding editions of his work. It grew from eleven very large pages in the first edition (1735) to 2,400 pages in the 12th edition (1766–1768). Also, as the work progressed, he made changes: in the first edition,

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s were classified as

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

es, following the work of Linnaeus' friend and "father of

ichthyology Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Peter Artedi Peter Artedi or Petrus Arctaedius (27 February 170528 September 1735) was a Swedish naturalist and collaborator of Carolus Linnaeus. He is sometimes known as the "father of ichthyology" for his pioneering work in classifying the fishes into gro ...

; in the 10th edition, published in 1758, whales were moved into the

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

class. In this same edition, he introduced two-part names (see

binomen In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

) for animal species, something that he had done for plant species (see binary name) in the 1753 publication of . The system eventually developed into modern

, a hierarchically organized

biological classification In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are give ...

. After Linnaeus' health declined in the early 1770s, publication of editions of went in two directions. Another Swedish scientist, Johan Andreas Murray issued the section separately in 1774 as the , rather confusingly labelled the 13th edition. Meanwhile, a 13th edition of the entire appeared in parts between 1788 and 1793. It was as the that Linnaeus' work became widely known in England following translation from the Latin by the Lichfield Botanical Society, as ''A System of Vegetables'' (1783–1785).

Taxonomy

In his ', Linnaeus established three kingdoms, namely ', ' and '. This approach, the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms, survives until today in the popular mind, notably in the form of parlour games: "Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?" The classification was based on five levels: kingdom,

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

, and

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. While species and genus was seen as God-given (or "natural"), the three higher levels were seen by Linnaeus as constructs. The concept behind the set ranks being applied to all groups was to make a system that was easy to remember and navigate, a task which most say he succeeded in. Linnaeus's work had a huge impact on science; it was indispensable as a foundation for

biological nomenclature Nomenclature codes or codes of nomenclature are the various rulebooks that govern the naming of living organisms. Standardizing the Binomial nomenclature, scientific names of biological organisms allows researchers to discuss findings (including ...

, now regulated by the

Nomenclature Codes Nomenclature codes or codes of nomenclature are the various rulebooks that govern the naming of living organisms. Standardizing the scientific names of biological organisms allows researchers to discuss findings (including the discovery of new s ...

. Two of his works, the first edition of the ' (1753) for plants and the 10th edition of the ''Systema Naturæ'' (1758), are accepted to be among the starting points of nomenclature. Most of his names for species and genera were published at very early dates, and thus take priority over those of other, later authors. In zoology there is one exception, which is a monograph on Swedish spiders, ', published by Carl Clerck in 1757, so the names established there take priority over the Linnean names. His exceptional importance to science was less in the value of his taxonomy, more in his deployment of skilful young students abroad to collect specimens. At the close of the 18th century, his system had effectively become the standard for biological classification.

Animals

Only in the animal kingdom is the higher taxonomy of Linnaeus still more or less recognizable and some of these names are still in use, but usually not quite for the same groups as used by Linnaeus. He divided the Animal Kingdom into six classes; in the tenth edition (1758), these were: #

Mammalia A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bon ...

comprised the

s. In the first edition,

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

and the

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the Eastern United States to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it ...

were classified among the fishes. #

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

comprised the

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. Linnaeus was the first to remove

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s from the birds and classify them under mammals. #

Amphibia Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic ...

comprised

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s, and assorted fishes that are not of

Osteichthyes Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

. # Pisces comprised the

bony fishes Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes (cartila ...

. These included the spiny-finned fishes (

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and als ...

) as a separate order. #

Insecta Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed leg ...

comprised all

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

Crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

arachnid Arachnids are arthropods in the Class (biology), class Arachnida () of the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, opiliones, harvestmen, Solifugae, camel spiders, Amblypygi, wh ...

s and

myriapod Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial. Although molecular evidence and similar fossils suggests a diversifi ...

s were included as the order "Aptera". #

Vermes Vermes ("vermin/vermes") is an obsolete taxon used by Carl Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for non-arthropod invertebrate animals. Linnaeus In Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae'', the Vermes had the rank of class (biology), class, occupying th ...

comprised the remaining

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s, roughly divided into "worms",

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

, and hard-shelled organisms like

echinoderm An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as ...

Humans

Linnaeus was one of the first scientists to classify humans as

primates Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians ( monkeys and apes). Primates arose 74–63 ...

(originally ''

'' for "manlike"), eliciting some controversy for placing people among

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...

and thus not ruling over

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. He distinguished humans (''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

'') from ''

Homo troglodytes Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, ''Homo'', is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans are classified a ...

'', a species of human-like creatures with exaggerated or non-human characteristics, despite finding limited evidence. He divided ''Homo sapiens'' into four varieties, corresponding with the four known

continents A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of As ...

and

four temperaments The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types ...

(some editions also classify ''Ferus'' wild children and ''Monstrosus'' monstrous to accommodate

adaptations In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the p ...

to extreme environments). The first edition included ''Europæus albescens'' (whitish Europeans), ''Americanus rubescens'' (reddish Americans), ''Asiaticus fuscus'' (tawny Asians), and ''Africanus nigriculus'' (blackish Africans). The tenth edition solidified these descriptions by removing the "ish" qualifiers (e.g. ''albus'' "white" instead of ''albescens'' "whitish") and revising the characterization of ''Asiaticus'' from ''fuscus'' (tawny) to ''luridus'' (pale yellow). It also incorporates

behavioral Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate p ...

and

traits that the

recognizes as having cemented colonial

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

and provided one of the foundations for

Plants

The orders and classes of plants, according to his ', were never intended to represent natural groups (as opposed to his ' in his ') but only for use in identification. They were used in that sense well into the 19th century. SN-p837

The Linnaean classes for plants, in the Sexual System, were: * Classis 1. Monandria * Classis 2. Diandria * Classis 3. Triandria * Classis 4. Tetrandria * Classis 5. Pentandria * Classis 6. Hexandria * Classis 7. Heptandria * Classis 8. Octandria * Classis 9. Enneandria * Classis 10. Decandria * Classis 11. Dodecandria * Classis 12. Icosandria * Classis 13. Polyandra * Classis 14. Didynamia * Classis 15. Tetradynamia * Classis 16. Monadelphia * Classis 17. Diadelphia * Classis 18. Polyadelphia * Classis 19. Syngenesia * Classis 20. Gynandria * Classis 21. Monoecia * Classis 22. Dioecia * Classis 23. Polygamia * Classis 24.

Cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being multicellular, photosynthetic, and primarily immobile, that reproduces via sp ...

Minerals

Linnaeus's taxonomy of

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): M ...

has long since fallen out of use. In the 10th edition, 1758, of the ', the Linnaean classes were: * Classis 1. Petræ ( rocks) * Classis 2. Mineræ (

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

s and

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

s) * Classis 3. Fossilia (

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s and aggregates)

Editions

Gmelin's thirteenth (''decima tertia'') edition of ''Systema Naturae'' (1788–1793) should be carefully distinguished from the more limited ''Systema Vegetabilium'' first prepared and published by Johan Andreas Murray in 1774 (but labelled as "thirteenth edition"). The dates of publication for Gmelin's edition were the following: *Part 1: pp. –12 1–500 (25 July 1788) *Part 2: pp. 501–1032 (20 April 1789) *Part 3: pp. 1033–1516 (20 November 1789) *Part 4: pp. 1517–2224 (21 May 1790) *Part 5: pp. 2225–3020 (6 December 1790) *Part 6: pp. 3021–3910 (14 May 1791) *Part 7: pp. 3911–4120 (2 July 1792)

References

Bibliography

; In Latin * ** ; In English translation
A General System of Nature
translated by William Turton. Lackington, Allen, and Company, January 1806 (free, registration required)

External links

* {{Authority control 1735 in literature 1735 introductions Book series introduced in the 1730s 1735 non-fiction books 1735 in science 18th-century books in Latin Carl Linnaeus Biological classification Zoological nomenclature Zoology books Botany books Biological systems