Taxonomy I | Biology - Visionlearning

Many people whose life and work depend on the natural environments are highly aware of the organisms around them. People who subsist on the food they grow or hunt, whether they are farmers in the rural United States or native hunter-gathers in the Amazon rainforest, are attuned to the variety of organisms around them, and can easily describe their benefits and problems. Some scientists have found that we have a genetic, instinctual fondness for nature that explains why humans are so preoccupied with plants and animals.

But there are surely practical reasons, too, for carefully observing behaviors and patterns in organisms. For those living off either a lush rain forest or the inhospitable Arctic, local plants and animals can provide food, shelter, clothing, and fuel for cooking fires or warmth. Even in less extreme regions, a basic knowledge of environmental biology, including food-related facts like the fruiting patterns of trees and the grazing habits of large mammals, has always been important to survival, so it has become a significant part of the cultural traditions of people virtually everywhere. As you might expect, each culture has its own system for naming the plants and animals with which they live.

The process of naming and classifying organisms according to set of rules is called taxonomy. In some cultures, taxonomic rules are based on traditional uses for plants and animals, and the existence of a classification system facilitates the transfer of that knowledge through generations. In modern scientific culture, taxonomic rules are based on physical appearance as well as genetic and evolutionary relationships between species, but having a classification system serves a very similar purpose by allowing scientists to communicate efficiently and effectively about the nature of a given organism with only a few words.

Comprehension Checkpoint

Taxonomy a. is not taken seriously by scientists who wish to classify species scientifically. Incorrect. b. is an important source of information for research scientists. Correct!

Early history of taxonomy

Among Europeans, we can trace the beginnings of organized, written taxonomies to ancient Greece. As early as 300 BCE, the philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle, classified plants into three categories: herbs, shrubs, or trees. In addition to classifying local specimens, Theophrastus was able to add species from other regions because Alexander the Great sent him specimens collected during his expeditions to conquer much of Europe and Asia.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, another round of famous expeditions marked the Age of Exploration. Dozens of explorers, including Ferdinand Magellan, Henry Hudson, and Hernando Cortes, traveled to distant parts of the globe and returned not only with stories of what they had seen, but also with samples of the plants and animals they encountered. European naturalists were kept busy describing these many new species and naming them in Latin, which was the language generally used for scholarly purposes.

By the 19th century, the idea of collecting exotic species became common practice and laid the foundation for research in the natural sciences. Charles Darwin, who developed the modern theory of evolution by natural selection in the middle 1800s, was one of many naturalists commissioned to collect, record, and describe the species he saw during his travels.