First Approaches to the Classification
There are many a way by which one can learn about one or two organisms. But, a biologist might need to learn almost all living things. But for this purpose, a biologist needs to have a classification. Classification is grouping of something into categories which makes it convenient for studies. In biology, the classification of living things is truly a difficult and tedious process.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle gave first ever scientific classification. They celebrated him as the father of Zoology for his brief classification of animals. Aristotle’s student, Theophrastus, was called the father of Botany for his work on plants. In this essay, we will further see the classification of Aristotle.
In Aristotle’s classification, all organisms are first divided into two groups, Plants and Animals. He simply classified plants into herbs, shrubs and trees based on their habits. Further, he classified animals into two groups, namely Enaima (with red blood) and Anaima (Without red blood).
This type of classification was very simple, and it did not consider many of the characteristics, such as cell structure, nature of the cell wall, habitat, etc. Hence, modern scientists discarded this classification completely.
He further classified animals into many groups based on their ability to walk, swim, and flight. He divided animals with red blood into quadrupeds (Animals with four legs) that can lay eggs (Oviparous) and that cannot lay eggs (Viviparous). And animals that can swim as fishes and whales, and all animals that can fly as birds.
He divided those without red blood into insects, crustaceans (Animals of the sea such as crabs, prawns, shrimps etc), shelled animals (snails, clamps etc), cephalopods (animals like octopus etc), plant-like animals (Jelly fish, squid etc) (Aristotle assumed that jellyfishes behave as plants!).
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