Question

The term species was coined by-
a. Linnaeus
b. John Ray
c. Aristotle
d. Engler

Answer 1

Hint: The term species is referred to as a group of identical interbreeding organisms living in the same geographical area.

Complete answer:
Species are defined as the group of living organisms consisting of individuals with similar characters and are potentially interbreeding. The species is the principal taxonomic unit and is named by following binomial nomenclature. The term species was coined by an English naturalist named John Ray. He was a well-known naturalist. He published his important works on botany and zoology. He also did some important classification on plants which forms the basis of modern taxonomy. He was among those first naturalists, who produced and explained the biological definition of the term species.

The term species is generally a Latin word, which had no specific meaning. The meaning of the word ‘species’ was originally given by John Ray. John Ray has thus contributed towards establishment of the explanation of the term species and entailment of the entity of the word species.

In all his work, Ray contributed towards the ordering of taxonomy. Instead of a single feature, he attempted to base his observations of systems of classification on all structural characteristics and using these features for defining species.

Hence, the correct option is b) John Ray.

Additional information:
John Ray was the first scientist or naturalist to use the concept of 'species' as a taxonomical sub-division. He was also among the first who classified or attempted to classify the botanical specimens systematically by incorporating information about each plant's details. He mainly considered the pharmacological and medicinal qualities of the plants for this classification.

Note: John Ray defined the term ‘species’ as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals are capable of reproducing and producing a fertile offspring, by means of reproduction.