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A Brief History of the Taxonomy of Mammals

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A Brief History of the Taxonomy of Mammals A Brief History of the Taxonomy of Mammals JACK D. BURKE Department of Anatomy, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, 23219 The mammals are an ancient toms that arose from superstition division of the animal kingdom. and mysticism and forbade dissec­ They probably developed from rep­ tion of the human body, man turned tile-like creatures in the early Trias­ to the study of animals. sic period, about 200 million years These studies began in the form ago. Ever since then they have of comparisons of the exterior and been changing to meet different interior parts of the animal body. and varying conditions of climate, Early taxonomy made use of this enemies, and many other factors. type of classification. Centuries Of the more than one million ani­ later, the study of fossil remains mals known in the entire animal shed some light on previously exist­ kingdom, the 4,000 or so species of ing mammals. The study of taxon­ mammals represent a small minor­ omy thus embraces many fields of ity. endeavor, each demanding a differ­ Mammals are characterized by ent approach but all inseparably being warm-blooded, having two related. Essentially, taxonomy gath­ pairs of appendages, and having ers together, utilizes, summarizes, hair at some stage of their develop­ and implements everything that is ment. They all bring forth their known about animals involving young alive except two egg-laying comparative, gross, and micro­ mammals (the Australian platypus scopic anatomy; biochemistry; phys­ and the echidna), and their brain iology; geology; and paleontology. is large in proportion to body size. From a humanitarian standpoint, Mammals also have a vertebral man experiments on animals using column; they have seven cervical humane conditions and controls. vertebrae with the exception of the Certain knowledge cannot be two-toed sloth which has six, the gained unless experiments are made three-toed sloth which has nine, on living animals, and, in order and the manatee which has eight. to evaluate results, the experimen­ The word "mammal" is derived talist needs to know, taxonomically, from the Latin mamma, for breast, the animal on which he is perform­ since mammals nourish their young ing experiments. by breast-feeding them milk. Inas­ The oldest and most obvious much as mammals are efficient in system of classifying animals was their way of life and adaptable to according to their mode of life, different environmental conditions, adaptations to their environment, they have risen to the highest stra­ and their associations. To this end tum of Nature's social order; and, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) attempted as a class, they are more intelligent the first classification of animals. than the other vertebrates. Even earlier, however, there was a The science of mammalogy orig­ listing and arrangement of names inated from the archaic study of of animals in a systematic manner medicine. Man wanted to know in Leviticus 11: 1-47 and in the more about his body and soul re­ old Assyrian inscriptions taken lation, but because of ancient cus- from the library of Ashurbanipal MCV QUARTERLY 4(2): 77-80, 1968 77 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TAXONOMY OF MAMMALS (ca. 688 B.C.). Aristotle recog­ One of these was Andrea Cesal­ 1753 and 1767. Each animal was nized some nat!:Jral groups of ani­ pino ( 1519-1603). His main work, described more or less as an inde­ mals, and in his work On Animals, De Plantis, published in Florence in pendent unit; the authors did not he designated groups of animals as 1583, was botanical; but he en­ give any groupings. the genos, and individual animals deavored to associate parts of In 1762 Mathurin Brisson or species as the eidos. His work animals with parts of plants. His ( 1723-1806) published the second also included an incipient theory system of classification was his edition of Regnum Animale. In of evolution; that is, there was a most important contribution. this book he divided the animal general graduation from polyp to John Ray (1627-1705), an Eng­ kingdom into nine classes, basing man. lishman called the "Father of his taxonomic study on Ray. From the time of Aristotle until Systematic Zoology," in 1693 pub­ In 1777 Giovanni Scopoli the rise of scholasticism in the 11th lished Synopsis Methodica Ani­ ( 1723-1788) published a classifi­ Century, Europe was too pre­ malium Quadrupedum et Serpentini cation which was an adaptation of occupied with barbaric invasions to Generis. In this work he organized the work of Ray and Linnaeus. devote much time to natural previous systems of descriptions of Entitled lntroductio ad Historium science. With St. Thomas Aquinas animals into a reasonable, system­ Naturalem Sistens Genera Lapi­ (1225-1274) and St. Albertus atic arrangement that became the dum, Plantarum et Animalium, it Magnus (1206-1280), scholasti­ basis for the taxonomic work in was conservatively and intelligently cism reached its peak in the 13th the following century by Carolus arranged. Two years after Scopoli's Century. These two churchmen Linnaeus (Carl von Linne). Lin­ classification was published, Johann aroused and perpetuated interest naeus (1707-1778) was a Swed­ Friedrich Blumenbach (1752- in Aristotle's analyses. Not only ish botanist who devoted his life to 1840), often called the "Father of the concept of genus and species taxonomic research. He listed the Anthropology," sent to press his was kept alive, but also the method whole animal kingdom in an or­ Handbuch der Naturgeschichte, a of division, which was a forerunner derly, systematic manner in the taxonomic study that embodied of modern classification. Through tenth edition of his great work many features of Linnaeus' work their insistence on the use of Latin Systema Naturae. There were and foreshadowed the Cuvierian in the church teachings as well as 12 editions of this work, the word system. In the "Handbuch," which in the pulpit, Latin became the "mammalia" appearing for the had excellent illustrations, there scientific language after the Ren­ first time in the tenth edition of was a natural transition between aissance. 1758. The 1758 edition is taken as certain adjacent orders. In 1792 With the coming of the Ren­ the zero point for zoological no­ Felix Vicq-d'Azyr (1748-1794) aissance to Europe in the 16th menclature. The names and con­ published his Systeme Anatomi­ Century, reasoning started to be tents remain much the same today .. que des Quadrupedes. His taxo­ empirical, science started to sepa­ Linnaeus is responsible for the nomic study was based on strict rate from the church and mythical binomial nomenclature employed anatomical observation and criti­ speculation, and the idea of natural in taxonomic work, which used a cal comparison. Much of his work classification of animals gained Latin noun for the genus and a was based on that of Linnaeus and acceptance .. Science, however, was descriptive adjective for the species Blumenbach. slower in developing than litera­ in the animal description. In 1795 Etienne Geoffroy Saint­ ture, politics, and astronomy (Nor­ Claude Perrault (1613-1688), Hilaire ( 1 772-1844) and Baron denskiOld, 1928; Singer, 1950). a Parisian, is remembered more Georges Leopold Chretien Frederic Influential in the rebirth of learn­ for the designs of beautiful build­ DagobertCuvier (1769-1832) pub­ ing was Konrad von Gesner (1516- ings than for his Memoires pour lished their clasification of mam­ 15 65). His main contribution was Servir a l'Histoire Naturelle des mals in volume 6 of the Magasin the work entitled Historia Animal­ Animaux, published in 1731, but Encyclopedique. It contained their ium, in which he attempted to his work was important in that it account of the Australian marsu­ separate truth from error by assem­ was a prelude to the more exten­ pials and the monotremes. Saint­ bling from many sources known sive work of Louis Jean Marie Hilaire confined himself to mono­ materials on animals. He used illus­ Daubenton. Perrault's classification graphic work thereafter.. Therefore, trated descriptions of animals was based on the external appear­ later changes in the classification which initiated the systematic work ance and anatomy of animals. were made by Cuvier according to of the coming generations. Daubenton (1716-1799), in col­ his Principle of Correlation. In Along with the development of laboration with George Louis 1798 he published his original clas­ mammalogy in regard to taxonomy, Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, pub­ sification Tableau Elementaire de botany classification received its lished the series of volumes of the l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux, share of taxonomic researchers. Histoire Naturelle issued between in which the term "family" first 78 J. D. BURKE appeared as a division of an order. classification contained several new In the same year, Theodore One year later, in 1799, Bernard generic names and divided the Nicolas Gill (1837-1914) pub­ Germain Etienne de la Ville, Comte Cetacea into two new suborders, lished his work, The Relations of de Lacepecte (1756-1825), pub­ Denticete and Mysticeti. the Orders of Mammals. It was a lished Tableau des Divisions, in In 1834 de Blainville presented simplified classification containing which he grouped all the marine a classification superior to any then the best features of earlier systems. mammals.. He followed Brisson's extant. He separated the mono­ For example, it improved de Blain­ classification in having a large num­ tremes from the marsupials and vi!le's plan by reducing the pri­ ber of orders based on the number improved the arrangement of the mary division from three sub­ and kinds of teeth. carnivores. He divided the Mam­ classes to two: 1) Prototheria The following year Cuvier pub­ malia into three subclasses, which ( Ornithodelphia), and 2) Eutheria lished Ler;ons d'Anatomie Com­ he called the Ornithodelphia, the (Didelphia and Monodelphia).
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