Can anyone give me a website or quick information on people classified organisms before Carl Linnaeus?

Question

Can anyone give me a website or quick information on people classified organisms before Carl Linnaeus?

Answer 1

There wasn't a unified system before Linnaeus, and that meant people were classifying organisms any way they wanted to.  An obvious example is the whale, which lots of people held to be a fish.  In some contexts beavers were considered fish as well.  This was convenient for Catholics who happened to be allowed to eat fish on Fridays but not other meats.

There wasn't a unified system, and that's a major reason why Linnaeus established one.  With different researchers all doing their own thing, it wasn't even always possible to be certain which organisms they were actually writing about.

Answer 2

Aristotle gave it a good try:

Aristotle's classification of animals grouped together animals with similar characters into genera (used in a much broader sense than present-day biologists use the term) and then distinguished the species within the genera. He divided the animals into two types: those with blood, and those without blood (or at least without red blood). These distinctions correspond closely to our distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates. The blooded animals, corresponding to the vertebrates, included five genera: viviparous quadrupeds (mammals), birds, oviparous quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibians), fishes, and whales (which Aristotle did not realize were mammals). The bloodless animals were classified as cephalopods (such as the octopus); crustaceans; insects (which included the spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, in addition to what we now define as insects); shelled animals (such as most molluscs and echinoderms); and "zooAristotle's classification of animals grouped together animals with similar characters into genera (used in a much broader sense than present-day biologists use the term) and then distinguished the species within the genera. He divided the animals into two types: those with blood, and those without blood (or at least without red blood). These distinctions correspond closely to our distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates. The blooded animals, corresponding to the vertebrates, included five genera: viviparous quadrupeds (mammals), birds, oviparous quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibians), fishes, and whales (which Aristotle did not realize were mammals). The bloodless animals were classified as cephalopods (such as the octopus); crustaceans; insects (which included the spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, in addition to what we now define as insects); shelled animals (such as most molluscs and echinoderms); and "zoophytes," or "plant-animals," which supposedly resembled plants in their form -- such as most cnidarians.

From:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/ari...