History of Taxonomy and Systematics

EARLIEST: “FOLK TAXONOMY”:

■ Pre-Linnaean: Chinese, Romans and
Greeks
■ Old language skill of mankind
■ Names of edible, poisonous plants
■ Plant taxonomy is one of the earliest
disciplines of Botany
■ Folk taxonomy – essential in
ethnobiological studies
T A X O N O M Y H A S C H A N G E D A L O T I N T H E L A S T 500 Y E A R S

4,000,000 plants aspects

are identified of which seventy percent in
2,860,000 are of tropical regions.
angiosperms

applied sciences as few people are thinking of

cytology, genetics, the basic or fundamental
experimental biology, branches of botany like
ecology, molecular Taxonomy and
biology etc. Morphology
M O R P H O L O G I C A L A NA LY S I S
B E C A M E A N O L D FA S H I O N

■ HOWEVER….No applied branch

can be approached without the
proper identification
■ Taxonomists are very much needed.
TAXONOMY IN BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENT

■ increased need for conservation of biological resources,

■ biodiversity assessment during the last few years has increase
■ taxonomic studies are being encouraged throughout the
world.
HISTORY OF TAXONOMY: PLANTS

■ Folk taxonomy
■ categorization of useful plants of folk
taxonomy
■ differentiated them with reference
economic value = herbal taxonomy.
EXPLORATORY PHASE: EARLY TAXONOMIC STUDIES

Medicinal plants were Aristotle (384–322 BC)

Taxonomy was merely
exploration and naming
of species.
illustrated on wall
Emperor Shen Nung paintings in Egypt (1500
BC)
(3000 BC)
Father of Chinese Medicine • oldest and largest papyrus rolls,
Ebers Papyrus,plants are
Classic Pharmacopoeia
included as medicines for
different diseases
Greek philosopher
• first to classify all living things,
• the vertebrates and
invertebrates which he called
animals with blood and without
blood.

Theophrastus (370-285
Dioscorides (40–90 AD)
BC)published “Enquiry Pliny (23-29 AD) wrote
into Plants. wrote De Materia 160 volumes on Natural
• - He proposed Crataegus, Medica, which contained history of which 37
Daucus, Asparagus and around 600 species volumes are present.
Narcissus etc. in his work. medicinal plants
EMPEROR SHEN NUNG
(3000 B.C)

■ Emperor of China
■ List of medicinal plants
■ Introduced acupuncture
■ Father of Agriculture and
Medicine in China
■ Divine Husbandman's
Materia Medica included
365 medicines derived from
minerals, plants,and animals
ARISTOTLE (384–322 BC)
Historia Animalium

Animals with blood

Live-bearing (humans and
mammals)
Egg-bearing (birds and fish)

Animals without blood

Insects
Shelled and non-shelled
crustaceans
Mollusks
THEOPHRASTUS (370-285 BC)
■ student of Aristotle and Plato
■ Father of Botany
■ wrote a classification of all known plants,
De Historia Plantarum (480 species)and
De Causis Plantarum
■ used for taxonomic purposes until the Middle
Ages in Europe
■ classification was based on growth form –
annual, biennial, perennial
■ Used species and genus to group things
P E DA N I U S D I O S C O R I D E S (40–90 AD)

■ Greek physician, pharmacologist,

botanist,
■ De materia medica —a 5-volume Greek
encyclopedia about herbal medicine and
related medicinal substances
■ widely read for more than 1,500 years
■ used in medicine until the 16th
century, and was copied several
times.
GAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS (23-29 AD)

■ Pliny the elder

■ Roman army, later in the Roman state.
■ wrote many books, the only one that has survived
- Naturalis Historia
■ 160 voumes, in which he described several
plants and gave them Latin names
■ Many names we still recognize, like Populus
alba and Populus nigra
■ Father of Botanical Latin - later kept for botanical
science
INSIGHTS

■ Systematics had its root from natural intuition

■ Categorization

■ Definition of species

■ Ancients
■ What is a being?

■ Essence of existence
 ■ Collecting and illustrating medicinal plants
HERBALISTS ■ Use of plant and plant extracts; not much
classification
TO DA RW I N
■ More elaborate than previous works
■ Scientific increase, mild dissociation
■ Rise of book printing
■ Otto Brunfels (1488-1534) –theologian and botanist
■ Hieronymus Bock (1498-1554) – priest, physician, botanist
■ Leonhart Fuchs ((1501-1566) – physician and botanist
■ Peitro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (1501-1577) – physician, naturalist
■ William Turner (1508-1568) – physician, naturalist
■ Matthias de L’Obel (1538-1616) – physician, plant enthusiast
■ John Gerard (1545-1612) – apprentice to a surgeon, herbalist
■ Charles de L’Ecluse (1526-1609) – doctor, botanist

■ Linnaeus later named plant groups to honor : Brunfelsia, Mattiolia, Turnera,

Lobelia, Gerardia and Fuchsia.
E XP L OR A T OR Y P H A S E : ESTABLISHMENT OF HERBARIA

■ The first herbarium was established in 1553 in Padua (ITALY)

■ Luca Ghini
■ physician, extremely influential among his students and fellow botanists throughout
Europe

■ founded the first botanical garden; first herbarium collection

■ Central method: careful observation and note taking was essential

■ Middle of 17th century, herbaria were established in different parts of

the world

Luca Ghini (1490-1556)

E X P L O R A T O R Y P H A S E : LINNEAN ERA
■ Ceasalipino (1519 1603) Bauhin (1560-1624), John Ray (1627-1705), de Tournefort
(1656-1708)
■ they gave concept of species, synonymy, classification and nomenclature.
■ defined species as a natural group of organisms with shared generalized or idealized patterns
shared
■ Pierre Belon
■ botanist, known for his comparative anatomical studies on skeletons of humans and birds
■ Linnaeus (1753) – Father of Taxonomy
■ published Species Plantarum
■ introduced binomial nomenclature
■ introduced sexual system in classification
■ artificial system on few characters.
A N D R E A C E S A L P I N O 1519-1603
■ "the first taxonomist“
■ De Plantis,a work that contained 1500
species
■ Groups of species:herbs and trees
■ plant families Brassicaceae and
Asteraceae
■ Important criterion: embryo, seed,
seedling
■ Rejected blind trust (prepositions, top-
down)
■ A posteriori (inductive principle)
: observations, facts, past
events
P I E R R E M A G N O L (1638-1715)

Used FAMILY concept

Used conspicuous characters of roots, stems and
flowers
Listed 76 families
BAUHIN BROTHERS
■ Gaspard Bauhin (1560-
■ Jean Bauhin (1541-1613) 1624)
■ physician, anatomist, and
■ physician, botanist
botanist
■ Historia plantarum ■ wrote the work Pinax
universalis (1650–51; Theatri Botanici in 1623
“General History of ■ Pinax means register - a
Plants”), listing of 6000 species.
■ included synonyms, which
■ elaborate descriptions
was a great necessity of the
of more than 5,000 time.
species ■ introduced a scientific
■ recognized genera and binomial system of
species as major classification
■ recognized genera and
taxonomic levels.
species as major
taxonomic levels.
J O H N R A Y (1627-1705)
■ naturalist and botanist
■ establishment of species as the ultimate unit of taxonomy
■ published important works on botany, zoology, and natural
theology
■ classification of plants - Historia Plantarum, an important step
towards modern taxonomy
■ rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species
were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type
system
■ classified plants according to similarities and differences
that emerged from observation.
■ Monocotyledons/dicotyledons
■ Used genus as a factual taxonomic group
JOSEPH PITTON DE TOURNEFORT (1656-1708)
■ Physician, botanist
■ collected many plant species on scientific expeditions
■ beautifully illustrated Éléments de botanique (1694)
■ primary emphasis on the classification of genera
■ classification entirely upon the structure of the flower
and fruit.
■ denied the sexuality of plants
■ classifications above the level of the genus were often
artificial.
■ use of a single Latin name for the genus, followed by a
few descriptive words for the species - a major step in
the development of binomial nomenclature
■ author of modern genus concept
■ “Herbarium”
C A R O L U S L I N N A E U S (1707-1778)
■ botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician
■ first to frame principles for defining natural genera and
species of organisms
■ Systema Naturae (“The System of Nature”)
■ volume of only 11 pages presented a hierarchical
classification, three kingdoms of nature: stones, plants,
and animals
■ each kingdom was subdivided into classes, orders,
genera, species, and varieties.
■ Genera Plantarum was considered his crowning
taxonomic achievement.
■ presented a system based on “natural characters” of
genera
■ morphological descriptions of all the parts of flowers
and fruit
GEORGE-LOUIS LECLERC DE BUFFON
(1707-1788)

■ Focused on genealogy
■ Allied species arise from a common ancestor
■ Beginnings of phylogenetic relationship
■ The first to recognize ecological succession
■ Countered the theory of pre-existence
■ Observation: similar environments, different regions
had different flora and fauna (biogeography)
■ Anti-Linnaean, taxa are arbitrary, species could
improve or degenerate into others (evolve) in
response to environment
J E A N - B A P T I S T E L A M A R C K (1744-1829)

■ French naturalist, biologist, soldier

■ classifications are artificial, though still useful
(dichotomous)
■ Divided animals - vertebrates,invertebrates
(absence of blood)
■ Theory of transmutation - species may
transform to another to achieve
perfection/complexity
■ Introduce concept of evolution - Law of Use
and Disuse
M I C H E L A D A N S O N (1727-1806)

■ Reflected natural system

■ Weighing of characters
■ Grandfather of numerical taxonomy
■ Book: Familles des plantes.
■ contempt for “systems”
■ proposed a natural classification based upon
all characters rather than upon a few arbitrarily
selected ones
G E O R G E C U V I E R (1769-1832)

■ Divided animal life to 4 branches -

articulata, mollusca,radiata, vertebrata
■ according to archetypes/body plans
■ archetypes as functional requirements
■ theory of catastrophism - species are
immutable but can go extinct
(revolutionary thought)
■ comparative anatomy of fossil and living
forms
ETIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE (1772-
1844)

■ French naturalist
■ Unity of composition (living and extinct)
■ Species are mutable as influenced by
environmental conditions
■ Homologous structures of species
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
(1782- 1832)

■ German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist,

statesman, theatre director, and critic
■ Coined the term morphology to present the entirety of
an organism’s form from development to adult as
opposed to type (gestalt)
■ Archetypes contained the inherent nature of a taxon
(bird-ness, mammal-ness, etc..)
L O R E N Z O K E N (1779-1851)

■ German naturalist,ornithologist
■ Importance of observable features
■ Homologize vertebral elements with
vertebral skull with fusion as main
development mechanism
■ Groups based on presence of sense organs
● Dermatozoa (invertebrates)
● Glossozoa (Fish)
● Rhinozoa (Reptiles)
● Otozoa (Birds)
● Opthalmozoa (Mammals)
CONSOLIDATION PHASE

Taxonomy is marked by publication of a number of monumental

works on plant classification

■ Augustin Pyramus De Candolle (1778-1841)

■ modified Linnaeus system
■ first to put forward the idea of "Nature's war“
■ recognize the difference between the morphological and physiological
characteristics of organs
■ Plantarum historia succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia
(1802)
■ proposed a natural method of plant classification
■ taxa do not fall along a linear scale
RICHARD OWEN (1804-1882)

■ English biologist, paleontologist, comparative

anatomist
■ defined homology and analogy
- same structure different function
- same function, different structure
BENTHAM AND HOOKER
(1864)

■ George Bentham (1800–

1884) and Joseph Dalton
Hooker (1817–1911)
■ closely affiliated to the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew
■ proposed natural system of
classification of seed plants
■ published Genera Plantarum
– 200 families, 7569 genera
CONSOLIDATION PHASE :
EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT

■ Charles Darwin (1859)

■ naturalist, geologist and biologist
■ published On the Origin of Species
■ suggested the principle of natural selection
■ evolution of species by common descent
■ Tree of Life
E R N S T H A E C K E L (1834-1919)

■ zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher,

physician, professor, marine biologist and artist
■ Promoted Darwin’s theory of evolution
■ presented the tree of life ( Darwin vs Aristotle)
in graphical form
■ showed genealogical relationships, degrees of
modification
■ coined the term Phylogeny to refer to genealogical
relationships
C O N S O L I D A T I O N P H A S E : I N T R O D U C T I O N TO P H Y L O G E N E T I C
CONCEPT
■ Endichler (1804-1849), Eichler (1837-1887)
■ Introduced Phylogenetic Classification based on the ideas of evolution.

■ Engler and Prantl (1887-1915)

■ suggested semiphylogenetic system of classification in Die Natiirlichen Pfalenzen Familien.

■ Bessey (1845-1915)
■ Provided the first purely Phylogenetic system based on Dictas of Phylogeny

■ Hallier (1868-1938)
■ Improved Bessey’s work

■ John Hutchinson (1955)

■ 24 principles of phylogeny and based on that suggested for phylogenetic classification of Families of flowering plants

■ The system was improved by contemporary Botanists like Takhtajan in Following Plants: Origin and Dispersal (1969); Cronquist in Evolution
and Classification of Flowering Plants” (1981); Stebbins in Flowering Plant Evolution above the Species Level (1974) and Robert Throne in “A
Phylogenetic Classification of Angiopermae” (1976) etc.,
■ The classification was based on distribution, Ecology, Anatomy, Palynology Cytology and Biochemistry apart from Morphology.
■ Techniques of herbarium preparation and presentation were developed and established.
 Previous classification system was improved
Takhtajan (1969)
• Following Plants: Origin and Dispersal Cronquist in Evolution
C O N S O L IDATION and Classification of Flowering Plants” (1981);
P H AS E : Stebbins (1974)
• Flowering Plant Evolution above the Species Level
I N T RO D U C T I O N
TO Robert Throne (1976)
PHYLOGENETIC • Phylogenetic Classification of Angiopermae”
CONCEPT
The classification was based on distribution, Ecology,Anatomy,
Palynology Cytology and Biochemistry apart from Morphology.

Techniques of herbarium preparation and presentation were

developed and established .
CONSOLIDATION PHASE : EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT

■ Theodosius Dobzhansky (1937)

■ published “Biological Species Concept”
■ Proposed the Biological concept defined
species as “a group of interbreeding
population reproductively isolated
from any other such group of
population.”
CONSOLIDATION PHASE: INSIGHTS

Species are dynamic….

(a) All populations tend to vary and no two species are ever alike.
(b) Some of these variations are adaptive and are of survival value.
(c) Forces of nature result in the extinction of some individual while others survive the same force.
(d) Some variations shown by individual within a population must be hereditary.
(e) The environments of individuals are not static.
(f) The focus on reason and logic
BIOSYSTEMATIC PHASE: MODERN TOOLS INTEGRATED

■ improvement in the area of taxonomic concept and application

■ rise of Biosystematics
■ The “New systematics” is aimed at achieving the goal of “holotaxonomy”
(straightforward).
■ Huxley (1940) proposed the term “New systematics.”
■ Camp and Gilly (1943) proposed the term “Biosystematics” to new systematics.

The number, size and shape of chromosomes were considered by cytotaxonomists as very reliable
taxa.
BIOSYSTEMATIC PHASE: MODERN TECHNIQUES

■ development of techniques like two-dimensional paper chromatography

■ identification of chemical substances in plants as secondary metabolites -
“Chemotaxonomy”.
■ new techniques give details as amino acid sequencing and determining
nucleotide sequence in DNA and RNA.
ENCYLCLOPAEDIC OR HOLOTAXONOMIC PHASE:

Information is gathered, analysed, and a meaningful inference is drawn for

understanding phylogeny:
■ independent discipline of taxonomy, i.e., Numerical Taxonomy

■ Collection of data, analysis and synthesis

■ Numerical Taxonomy or quantitative taxonomy

■ based on numerical evaluation of the similarity between groups of organisms

■ ordering of these groups into higher ranking taxa on the basis of these similarities.
HISTORY OF SYSTEMATICS: SUMMARY

(1) Ancients (2000 BC – 1500 AD.)

■ Theophrastus and essentialism:
■ Classification by habitat, Emphasis on genus.
■ ‘Ladder of life’ or ‘great chain of being’ or ‘Scalae Naturae’.

(2) Herbalists (1500 AD – 1580 AD)

■ Pledanius Disorides (C. 40 – 90 AD):
■ De Materia Medica and connection of Greek medicine, plants and classification.
■ German Herbalists and their herbals:
■ Classification of medicinal properties.
HISTORY OF SYSTEMATICS

(3) The pivotal period:

Beginning of natural thought (1580AD – 1800AD) Andrea Caesalpino
John Ray:
■ The concept of ‘class’ [orders],

Pierre Magnol:
■ The concept of family.

Carolus Linnaeus (Carl Linnaeus):

■ Sexual system of classification in Species Plantarum.
■ Species Plantarum:
■ The ultimate mechanical or artificial system.
HISTORY OF SYSTEMATICS
(4) Natural system (1760AD-1880AD):
■ Antoine de Jussieau ,John Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker.
(5) Period of Phylogentic systems (1859AD-Till date):
■ Charles Darwin:
■ Impact of On the Origin of Species for classification.
■ Adolf Engler & Karl Prantl:
■ “Die NatUrlichen Pflanzen familien”. Salix as primtive.
■ Charles Bessey:
■ Dicta and cactus classification scheme considered Magnolia = Primitive.
■ John Hutchinson. 24 Principles of Phylogeny.
■ Arther Cronquist
■ Armen Takhtajan
■ Robert Throne
■ Rolf Dahlgren.
HISTORY OF SYSTEMATICS

(6) Phylogenetic and Molecular systematics

■ Phylogenetic and Molecular systematics (1993-till date) ongoing role in redefining classification.
■ 1993:
■ The first major classification based on DNA (rbcL of cpDNA): rbcb sequencing study called Treezilla that redefined angiosperm
systematics.

■ 1998 & 2003 APG classification system:

■ The angiosperm phylogeny group.