Jay Robin Wee (BIO 100.

01 - A)

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Linnean Hierarchal System

In pursuit of classifying and organizing the multitude of organisms, Karl Von Linne

established a hierarchal system that ranked organisms based on shared characteristics.

Although it is still widely recognized today, there are certain limitations that open such

concepts to be debatable. One of the strengths of the hierarchal system is its ability to

depict evolutionary relationships among organisms. As organisms are grouped depending on

shared morphological characteristics, they are bound by their most recent ancestors.

Therefore, the morphological similarities among organisms are relatively supported by

genetics (Miller & Harley, 2016). Furthermore, the hierarchical system opens the binomial

nomenclature, which is the current basis for the scientific names of organisms. Therefore,

through the hierarchal system, organisms are given specific names that are standardized in

scientific literature. Contrastingly, several limitations can be observed. The primary limitation

of the hierarchal system lies in its inability to provide concrete definitions of what

constitutes a taxon above the species level. A set of criteria to qualify whether families

represent the same level of divergence from a common ancestor, or how meaningful such

divergence in terms of time, does not exist (Miller & Harley, 2016). Most scientists refer to

the ranks above the species level as “artificial constructs” (Withgott, 2000). As the Linnean

system precedes modern taxonomy, molecular advances challenge such primitive method,

as it seeks to emphasize direct genetic genealogy compared to simple morphological

similarities. The debate between the Class Aves and Class Reptilia among birds attests to this

limitation. Finally, Linnaeus initially presented 44,000 species at the onset of his imposed

system. As diversity grows and advances are limitless in the animal kingdom, such ranks may

not be sufficient enough to cater to all of the newly discovered species (Withgott, 2000).
Reference List

Miller, S.A, & Harley, J. P. (2016). Zoology (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Withgott, J. (2000). Is it “So Long, Linnaeus”? In high-stakes name game, phylogenetic

nomenclature puts its chips on the table. BioScience, 50(8), 646-651.

https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0646:IISLL]2.0.CO;2