- Systema Naturae
The book "Systema Naturae" was one of the major works of the Swedish doctor of medicine
Carolus Linnaeus . Its full title is "Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis" or translated: "System of nature through the three kingdoms of nature, according to classes, orders, genera and species, with [generic] characters, [specific] differences, synonyms, places".The tenth edition of this book is considered the starting point of
zoological nomenclature .cite book|last=Linnaeus |first=Carolus |authorlink=Carl Linnaeus |title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae :secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. |publisher=Holmiae (Laurentii Salvii) |year=1758 |url=http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542 |accessdate=2008-09-22 |language=Latin |edition=10th edition]Overview
Linnaeus published the "Systema Naturae" in the year 1735, during his stay in the
Netherlands . As customary for the scientific literature of its day, the book was published inLatin . In it, he outlines his ideas for the hierarchical classification of the natural world, dividing it into the animal kingdom ("Regnum animale"), the plant kingdom ("Regnum vegetabile") and the "mineral kingdom" ("Regnum lapideum").The classification of the plant kingdom in the book was not a natural one, but of convenience: it followed Linnaeus' new sexual system where species with the same number of
stamen s were treated in the same group. Linnaeus believed that he was classifyingGod 's creation and was not trying to expressevolutionary relationships. The classification of animals was more natural. For instance,human s were for the first time placed together with otherprimate s (as Anthropomorpha).In view of the popularity of the work Linnaeus kept publishing new and ever expanding editions, growing from eleven pages in the first edition (
1735 ) to three thousand pages in the final and thirteenth edition (1770 ). Also, as the work progressed he made changes: In the first editionwhale s were erroneously classified asfish es; in the 10th edition, published in 1758, thewhale s were moved to themammal s. In this same edition he introduced two part names (seebinomen ) for animal species, something he had done for plant species (seebinary name ) in the 1753 publication of "Species Plantarum ".References
External links
* [http://www.linnaeus.uu.se/online/animal/1_1.html Linné on line]
* [http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542 10th edition (2 volumes)] online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/notice?N=FRBNF37273248&UC=o 12th edition (in three volumes)] online at gallica
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=Ix0AAAAAQAAJ 13th edition (Volume I, 532 pages)] online atGoogle Book Search
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