P
eople have long marveled at
the variety of life, celebrating
nature’s gifts in prehistoric
cave art that dates back 30,000 years
or more. In Ancient Greece in the 4th
century BCE, Aristotle made an early
attempt to classify living organisms;
his 11-grade scala naturae (“ladder of
life”) placed humans and mammals
at the top, and descended through
other, more “primitive” animals
to plants and then minerals. A
thousand years later, the medieval
world still considered variations
on Aristotle’s system to be valid.
There were several reasons for this.
Without microscopes, nothing was
known of cells and microorganisms.
Without the means to explore
underwater, science’s knowledge
of aquatic creatures was limited,
and many parts of the world were
still unknown to Western scientists.In keeping with the prevailing
ideas of the Catholic Church, the
natural world was seen as static
and unchanging.An age of discovery
The age of great expeditions
of discovery revealed previously
uncharted regions and their
animals and plants. In his History
of the Animals (1551–58), Swiss
physician and naturalist Conrad
Gesner included some of the recent
finds from the New World and the
Far East, as well as relying on
classical literature. The five-volume
work reflected his division of
animals into mammals; reptiles and
amphibians; birds; fish and aquatic
animals; and snakes and scorpions.
The invention of the microscope
also had a major impact. English
scholar Robert Hooke was quickto adopt this new technology: his
book Micrographia (1665) inspired
others to do likewise. Able to view
specimens magnified to 50 times
their actual size, he made meticulous
drawings of microsopic life, and
also coined the term “cell” after
examining plant fibers. Hooke also
suggested a living origin for fossil
fragments found in rocks.Classifying variety
English vicar John Ray’s History of
Plants (1686–1704) was the botanical
equivalent of Gesner’s earlier work,
listing some 18,000 species in three
huge volumes. Ray also produced
a biological definition of a species,
remarking that “one species never
springs from the seed of another.”
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus,
the “father of taxonomy,” first
published Systema Naturae in 1735,INTRODUCTION
C. 350 BCE
Aristotle’s History of
Animals groups living things
based on their species, in a
scala naturae that places
organisms into 11 grades.1881
The Natural History
Museum in London opens its
doors to the public, free of
charge. It now houses 80
million specimens.80
1683
A private collection of natural
history curiosities is displayed
at Oxford University’s
Ashmolean Museum, the
world’s first public museum.1665 CE
Micrographia, the richly
illustrated book by Robert
Hooke, reveals microscopic
structures to a wider audience.1758
The 10th edition of Systema
Naturae by Carl Linnaeus
classifies a range of plant
and animal species using
his binomial system.US_080-081_Ch_3_Ordering_the_natural_world_Intro.indd 80 12/11/18 6:24 PM