Question

Which of the following is called “Father of taxonomy”?

(a) Aristotle

(b) Carolus Linneaus

(c) John Ray 

(d) Theophrastus

Answer 1

Hint: He is known for his work published in his two major books “Systema Naturae” and “Species Plantarum”. He is also known for giving the rules on how to name an organism by Binomial Nomenclature. Additionally, He was one of the founders of the “Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”.

Complete answer:

Taxonomy is the study of naming, sorting, grouping and comparing all the organisms including plants, animals, and microorganisms. 

Carolus Linneaus is known as the ‘father of taxonomy and nomenclature.’

So, the correct answer is, ‘Carolus Linneaus’.

Additional Information:

Carolus Linnaeus is also known as  Carl Linnaeus and  Carl von Linné (Swedish) . He was the first person to set principles for defining the genus and species of an organism and to create a uniform system of nomenclature (binomial nomenclature) mentioned in his book; ‘Species Plantarum’ in 1753.

He gave this classification of the organism in his book ‘Systema Naturae’ in 1758, dividing the kingdom into phylum, classes, order, family, genus, and species. These two books are still being used by the scientists for the naming of the organisms.

According to binomial nomenclature:

Each name has two parts – the Generic name and the specific epithet. For example, the scientific name of the tiger is written as Panthera tigris. Let us see how it is a binomial name. In this name, Panthera represents the genus while tigris is a particular species.

Note: After the death of Carl Linnaeus ‘The Linnean society’ was set up and it is known to be the world’s oldest active biological society.

Aristotle is considered the ‘father of biology and zoology.’ 

John Ray coined the term ‘species’.

Theophrastus is known as the ‘father of botany.’