Question

Who developed the key for the identification of animals?
A. John Ray
B. Goethe
C. Georges Cuvier
D. Theophrastus

Answer 1

Hint: The classification of plants given in the book Historia generalis Plantarum proved evolutionary in the identification of organisms.

Complete answer
John Ray, the famous English naturalist is contributed for devising the key for the identification of animals.
- An identification key is a computer-based printed device used to identify plants, animals, fossils, and microorganisms. The identification keys are used in multiple steps each consisting of contradictory statements defining a character. The pair of contradicting statements are known as a ‘couplet' and each statement of the couplet is known as ‘lead’.
- If there are only two contradicting statements then it is known as dichotomous, otherwise, it is known as polytomous.

Additional Information:
- Goethe was an eminent laureate, philosopher, and writer. He also did research in morphology, anatomy, and optics.
- Georges Cuvier was a French naturalist and zoologist. His work laid down the foundation of animal paleontology and he also expanded the Linnaean classification.
- Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and biologist is considered as ‘Father of Botany'. He classified the plant kingdom into trees, herbs, shrubs, and sub-shrubs on the basis of morphological characters for the first time.
So, the correct answer is ‘John Ray’.
Note:
> The identification done by keys is only suggestive of the species identity, it should be verified for authentication.
> John Ray's system of classification begins with classifying plants into Cryptogams (seedless plants) and Perfect plants (seed bearing plants). He further divided the trees into 8groups, the shrubs into 2 groups, and herbs into 21 groups. The sub-shrubs were kept in one single group.