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Home , Ferungulata, Henry Fairfield Osborn, History of biology, Mammalogy, Manatee, Prototheria

A Brief History of the of

JACK D. BURKE Department of , Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, 23219

The mammals are an ancient toms that arose from superstition division of the . and mysticism and forbade dissec­ They probably developed from rep­ tion of the , man turned tile-like creatures in the early Trias­ to the study of . sic period, about 200 million 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 remains mals known in the entire animal shed some light on previously exist­ kingdom, the 4,000 or so 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 scopic anatomy; ; phys­ and the ), and their brain iology; ; and . 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 which has six, the gained unless experiments are made three-toed sloth which has nine, on living animals, and, in and the which has eight. to evaluate results, the experimen­ The word "" 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 and adaptable to according to their mode of life, different environmental conditions, to their environment, they have risen to the highest stra­ and their associations. To this end tum of 's social order; and, (384-322 B.C.) attempted as a , they are more intelligent the first classification of animals. than the other . Even earlier, however, there was a The science of orig­ listing and arrangement of names inated from the archaic study of of animals in a systematic manner . 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 . His ( 1723-1806) published the second also included an incipient theory system of classification was his edition of Regnum Animale. In of ; that is, there was a most important contribution. this book he divided the animal general graduation from polyp to (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 ," in 1693 pub­ In 1777 Giovanni Scopoli the rise of 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 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 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 . 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 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 (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' 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 . 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 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 , Theodore One year later, in 1799, Bernard generic names and divided the Nicolas Gill (1837-1914) pub­ Germain Etienne de la Ville, Comte 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 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) lished Ler;ons d'Anatomie Com­ he called the Ornithodelphia, the (Didelphia and Monodelphia). paree, which improved the classifi­ Didelphia, and the Monodelphia. Huxley, in 1880, published a cation set forth in his volume of Though his terms have been largely classification, On the Application 1798; a great number of new superseded, the underlying idea is of the Laws of Evolution to the genera which had been described still retained in modern form. Arrangement of the Vertebrata, by various authors were included In 1838 Prince Charles Lucien and More Particularly, of the therein. Bonaparte (1775-1840) , the next Mammalia. He inserted another Another system of mammalian younger brother of Emperor Na­ subclass, , between the classification was proposed by Jo­ poleon I, published his New Sys­ Prototheria and Eutheria in Gill's hann Karl Wilhelm Itliger ( 1775- tematic Arrangement of V erte­ classification. The most important 1813) in 1811 in a treatise en­ brated Animals in which the feature of Huxley's classification titled Prodromus Mammalium et classification was based on brain was that the main divisions were Avium. Based on foot , it evolution. not founded upon traditional cri­ contained little that was new in In 1855 Christoph Gottfried teria, such as the number of digits principle. Andreas (1820-1881) , curator for or teeth, but upon deep-seated Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blain­ the museum at the University of anatomical characters having little ville (1777-1850) drew his criteria Halle, published Odontographie, in relationship to particular life habits. for taxonomy from the reproduc­ which he devised a classification In 1883 Sir William Henry tive system and the skull and was based on teeth. Flower (1831- 1899) published a the first to use the term "subclass" In 1864 de Blainville's work classification which dealt only with in its modern sense. Like most Osteographie was published con­ existing orders and combined the other taxonomists prior to Huxley, taining a classification based upon best of Cuvier, de Blainville, Owen, de Blainville began his classifica­ the study of bone structure. This Gill, and Huxley. tion with the . He at­ work was supported by Charles In 1891, tempted to progress from a lower Darwin (1809-1882) whose Ori­ (1840-1897) published part 3 of to a more advanced archetype. gin of Species (1859) stressed skel­ his Syllabus of Lectures on Geol­ This new taxonomic study was pub­ etal similarity and progressions. ogy and Paleontology. In 1898 lished in 1816 in Prodrome d'une In 1868 Sir part 4 was published. This syllabus Nouvelle Distribution Systematique (1804-1892) published a non­ was Cope's final attempt to express du R egne Animal. formal classification based upon the taxonomic relationships of all In 1817 Cuvier published the Bonaparte's taxonomic study of the recent and fossil orders (Greg­ first edition of Le Regne Animal, 1837. The work was entitled On ory, 1910) . which became as popular as Lin­ the Anatomy of Vertebrates, Vol­ In 1904 Max Weber (1864- naeus' Systema Naturae. It con­ ume III-Mammals, and selection 1920), published Die Siiugetiere. tained a new arrangement of the was based on animal . In this taxonomic study he tried to carnivores and became the stand­ (1825- recognize and discount the mis­ ard work on . 189 5) in 1869 proposed the name leading interpretations of parallel In 1821 John Edward Gray "Hypotheria" for the class of and convergent evolution, which in (1824-1875) , during a long term Mammalia, a name suggested be­ earlier classification had caused of service at the British Museum, cause of speculations about the animals of widely different deriva­ described in the London Medical origin of the class. Huxley's work tions to be grouped in the same Repository the first application of in taxonomy, A Manual of the order. the term-ending idea for families Anatomy of Animals, Most of the more complete clas­ of mammals. The ending had been followed de Blainville's threefold sifications have originated in the suggested for the families of insects division of the Mammalia. It was United States. An excellent ex­ by William Kirby in 1815. Gray's publi shed in 1872. ample is The Age of Mammals by

79 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TAXONOMY OF MAMMALS

Henry Fairfield Osborn ( 1857- Field Guide to the Mammals (Burt 1935) . This work contained a and Grossenheider, 1952) and complete review of mammalian W. F. Blair's "Mammals" in Ver­ study, incorporating the latest tebrates of the United States (Blair, knowledge of classification up to et al., 1957). 1910. William Berryman Scott (1858-1947) published a His­ References tory of Land Mammals of the Western Hemisphere ( 1937) which, BLAIR, w. F., A. P. BLAIR, P. BROD­ like Osborn's The Age of Mam­ KORB, F. R. CAGLE AND G. A. mals, was very thorough. Parker, MOORE. Vertebrates of the United Haswell, and Cooper (1940) wrote States. New York: McGraw-Hill, a zoology textbook which gave an 1957, pp. 617- 774. excellent, illustrated description of BURT, w. H. AND R. P. GROSSEN· each mammalian order. HEIDER. A Field Guide to the (1945) Mammals. Boston: Houghton-Miff­ published The Principles of Clas­ lin, 1952. sification and a Classification of DARWIN, C. R. The Origin of Species. Mammals. This treatise contained Reprint of 1859 Edit. New York: a complete classification of living Modern Library, 1950. and fossil mammals arranged so GREGORY, W. K. The Orders of Mam­ that one could tell at a glance who mals. New York: The Trustees, first proposed the name for a 1910, pp. 1-105. (Bull. Am. Mus. particular taxonomic group and Nat. Hist., Vol. 27). when it was proposed. For the MILLER, G. S., JR. AND R. KELLOGG. fossil mammals there was also a List of North American Recent description of where the animal Mammals. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Ins ti tu ti on, 19 5 5. was found in geological time. The (U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 205). cohort Ferungulata replaced the older cohort Ungulata; in the NORDENSKIOLD, E. The . New York: Knopf, 1928. former the order is listed along with the rest of the PARKER, T. J., W. A. HASWELL AND orders formerly assigned to the C. F. COOPER. A Textbook of Zool­ ogy. 6th Edit. Vol. 2. New York: latter. Macmillan, 1940, pp. 486-623. With the publication of the List of North American Recent Mam­ ScoTT, W. B. A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemi­ mals (Miller and Kellogg, 1955), sphere. Rev. Edit. New York: Mac­ the results of taxonomic studies of millan, 1937, pp. 1- 14. North American mammals were SIMPSON, G. G. The Principles of summarized. Classification and a Classification Interrelated with the study of of Mammals. New York: The mammalian taxonomy is the prep­ Trustees, 1945, pp. 1-350. (Bull. aration of keys for identifying a Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 85). specimen. Among the published SINGER, C. A History of Biology. taxonomic keys for mammals which Rev. Edit. New York: Schuman, have had extensive usage are: A 1950.

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