To understand taxonomy, we must study its history. The history of taxonomy closely parallels the history of science. In fact, taxonomy produced many of our modern sciences.
Taxonomy was present at the beginning of human history. Some of the early ways taxonomy was used are still with us today. Taxonomy, the organizing science, has become a practical and necessary tool of life scientists. Many related sciences such as botany, biology, zoology, paleontology, archeology, and microbiology all use the basic classification of taxonomy. We will trace the birth and development of science in this section of this unit.
Biblical Taxonomy
From his beginning, man has employed the science of taxonomy. Though it may seem to be a science of minimal significance, taxonomy is essential to our learning process and specifically to our understanding of God's creation. It not only determines what we learn but also how we learn. Taxonomy permits us to see similarities and differences among all of God's creation. It is a tool which adds order and meaning to what we learn and increases our understanding, our comprehension of God's creation.
From Creation, it had always been observed that kinds of living things with similar characteristics continued to reproduce similar offspring. Genesis records that each living thing reproduces "after its kind." Men conducting scientific research have been able to discover Genetics, the mechanism responsible for this. The science of genetics studies the ways traits are passed from parent to offspring. Some organisms present at Creation have become extinct; the rest continue to reproduce organisms of the same ancestral kind. Some have produced many sizes, shapes, and varieties of those original kinds of living things. These are present today, and were present at the beginning according to the Scriptures.
When Moses recorded Genesis, workable principles of taxonomy and genetics had not been developed. These fundamental principles may have been known by the pre-flood civilization, having been introduced by Adam when he named all the animals.
God created kinds of living things with similarities and differences. This has enabled us to group organisms together in a logical way. Taxonomy is the science of this grouping process.
Early History of Taxonomy
The history of taxonomy is important to show the development of science to the learner. The life sciences are built on the science of classification. People have been classifying organisms for thousands of years.
Historians tell us that one of the common ways people of ancient times grouped living things was into the categories of useful or harmful. This method is a popular way of thinking about plants and animals even today. Other groupings that people commonly use are food, clothing, building, size, shape, utility, color, composition, value, danger, and the list could go on and on. The multitude of potential classifications has made it difficult for scientists to determine a suitable scheme of classification. The great varieties and complexities of living things seem to preclude finding an "ideal" system of classification.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a student of nature. He classified animals into two main groups: animals with red blood and animals without red blood. He classified plants into three main groups: herbs, shrubs, and trees. Aristotle's taxonomy has been used for nearly two thousand years as a foundation for classification. Numerous writings and works of research are credited to Aristotle, based on his teaching in the Lyceum, the center for knowledge in ancient Greece. For his work with animals, later scientists gave him the title "Father of Zoology."
Theophrastos (370-285 B.C.), a student of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, was one of the first writers of plant description. His work with plants earned him the title "Father of Botany." Two of his known works are Enquiry into Plants, and The Causes of Plants. Altogether Theophrastos wrote about five hundred different kinds of plants which he classified into four groups: trees, shrubs, subshrubs, and herbs. He also noted the differences in plant tissues and differences between flowering and nonflowering plants. Theophrastos' reputation was such that Alexander the Great in his travels and conquests sent numerous plant materials to him to study in Athens, thus further broadening his area of knowledge.
Many fields of knowledge became dormant with the decline of the Greek civilization. The Romans were more interested in power than in knowledge. Scientific work that was done was often incomplete or inaccurate.
Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) wrote about the medicinal and agricultural groupings of plants in his Natural History, a work of nearly forty known volumes. The information he recorded about the known world of his day was held in reverence by the people of Europe for more than a thousand years. Much of his work, however, was copied from earlier authors, but with the unfortunate addition of a large number of myths and fables.
