Scientific Classification in Biology Essay -- Papers Biological Classi

Scientific Classification in Biology Classification in biology, is the identification, naming, and grouping of organisms into a formal system. The vast numbers of living forms are named and arranged in an orderly manner so that biologists all over the world can be sure they know the exact organism that is being examined and discussed. Groups of organisms must be defined by the selection of important characteristics, or shared traits, that make the members of each group similar to one another and unlike members of other groups. Modern classification schemes also attempt to place groups into categories that will reflect an understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying the similarities and differences among organisms. Such categories form a kind of pyramid, or hierarchy, in which the different levels should represent the different degrees of evolutionary relationship. The hierarchy extends upward from several million species, each made up of individual organisms that are closely related, to a few kingdoms, each containing large assemblages of organisms, many of which are only distantly related. Carolus Linnaeus is probably the single most dominant figure in systematic classification. Born in 1707, he had a mind that was orderly to the extreme. People sent him plants from all over the world, and he would devise a way to relate them. At the age of thirty-two he was the author of fourteen botanical works. His two most famous were Genera Plantarum, developing an artificial sexual system, and Species Plantarum, a famous work where he named and classified every plant known to him, and for the first time gave each plant a binomial. This binomial system was a vast improvement over some of the old descri... ...ly and structurally too dissimilar to the species categorized above to fit into that scheme of taxonomy. Although this system is complex and intricate at times, its universality makes it a necessity. With out the system presently in use the world would be years and years behind in their task to name all of the living organisms on earth. This system is great but it is always possible that some new finding could cause the system to evolve to become more inclusive. This system is by no means set in stone, and Linnaeus would probably be astounded to see the way that it has evolved since his original system. Bibliography: Berkely University. www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html/ Galbraith, Don. Understanding Biology. John Wiley and Sons. Toronto. 1989, Microsoft. Encarta Encyclopedia 97. Microsoft Corporation. 1997