BIODIVERSITY: ANIMALS

   There is enormous biological diversity!

                  There are almost 8.7 million species on this earth. This number is rapidly increasing every day. This mind boggling number makes it almost impossible to study each and every day. This mind boggling number makes it almost impossible to study each and every organism individually. Therefore, scientists felt that these organisms must be grouped in some fashion into discrete categories. This not only made their job simpler but also helped to characterize them. This was beginning of a system of classification. The categorization however cants be random e.g., if we list names or words in a telephone directory or dictionary randomly, we shall never be able to find or locate a particular telephone number or meaning of a particular word. Therefore, a uniform and universal scientific system of classification was developed for the organisms.

             A taxonomist’s job didn’t get over by merely classifying the organisms; the organisms also needed a scientific name. Since the organisms are known differently at different places and their common names are used casually, it creates confusion, e.g. a silver fish is an insect and not a fish; similarly, sea mouse is not even distantly related with a mouse. Hence, it necessitated a code of naming or nomenclature. A number of attempts were made in this direction but success came to the famous Swedish naturalist Carlus Linnaeus who developed the system of Bionomial Nomenclature in his book called Systems Naturae in 1758.   
        This distinction earned him the title of “Father of Taxonomy”.