360Linnaeus publishes his system for naming living things
In 1735, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae, a system for grouping and naming plants, animals and minerals. Later he gave every species a two-part Latin name, such as Homo sapiens for humans. Scientists around the world still use his naming system, which made it possible to describe and compare life on Earth.
In the early 18th century, naturalists described plants and animals with long Latin phrases, and different scholars used different names for the same species.
Carl Linnaeus, a young Swedish doctor and botanist, published the first edition of Systema Naturae in the Netherlands in 1735. It was only a few large pages, sorting nature into kingdoms, classes, orders and genera.
He kept expanding it. In his Species Plantarum of 1753, and the tenth edition of Systema Naturae in 1758, he consistently used two-word names: a genus and a species, such as Homo sapiens or Felis catus.
The system was simple and practical, and it spread quickly. Today, scientists still follow Linnaean naming rules, and new species are named in the same way, although modern classification is also based on evolution and DNA.
- 1735
- First edition of Systema Naturae
- 1753
- Species Plantarum names plants with two words
- 1758
- Tenth edition names animals the same way
Sources: Linnean Society of London · Natural History Museum · Britannica.