History of Taxonomy Essay

Many of the disease and condition names first used by Galen have been retained. This accounts for the fact that the second most common source of medical root words is the Greek Language. Other older roots have their Arabic. This is due to the fact that Arabic scholars were important teachers of medicine through the middle ages. Some modern roots are taken from the English language. This reflects the pre-eminence of the English language in medicine and biomedical sciences for the past half century. The Latin language adds suffixes to nouns to denote different syntax constructions. Since suffixes were commonly used by Italian scientists, their use in medical settings were also retained. Some prefixes are adaptations of Latin words. In medical descriptions and terminology, they were attached to root words rather than being separate from the word that they were modifying. Prefixes are often used to indicate locations on the body or directions relative to planes or structures in the body. Some words in modern medical terminology have been borrowed from biology. Many of these are names of genus and species of pathogens. The use of Latin for these names dates to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) who founded the modern system of taxonomy. Finally, from approximately 1650 through to 1850 – while the system of medical terminology currently in use was being developed-Latin was the language of educated persons. This is another reason for the inclusion of so many linguistic elements

Eventually, more scientific advances were made, that led to race. Initially, a classification system was created by

By using DNA sequencing software and using comparative DNA alignment programs, scientists can piece together where the differences and similarities align and the percentage of identical DNA between two species. Another method of classifying these gene-swapping organisms is to alter the method of vertical genomics and shift to a new form of lateral genomics (Koonin et al. 2001). A method using vertical, linear genomics alone will not provide enough resources to clearly assign an organism to a taxonomic group. Also, scientists can look at gene loss over time as a method to group these organisms (Koonin et al. 2001). If scientists would rather stick with similarities to define a taxonomic group, the use of genomic instruments can provide a better picture of which genes are highly conserved between organisms of the same group (Doolittle 1999). Researchers have begun to employ this method as the means for best completing a phylogenetic tree. Using alignments of single copy genes conserved in the genome allows for scientists to achieve that vertical pattern of phylogeny that can be lost when focusing on the amount of transferred genes between groups (Lang et al. 2013).

How are species defined? What are the differences among the various ways in which species are defined? What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of these approaches?

Classification- Writing that arranges people or items into different categories is classification; for example, organizing items based on where they belong or who they belong to.

In the late Fifteenth century race, as a social construct began its inception during a period of human exploration. Race and class specification created a form of distinction that fostered a divider between upper and lower class without maintaining a reference to racial differences. Theorist such as Carolus Linnaeus was known for his development of System Scientific

Years ago, biologists made research on the biological variations between individuals and they made inferences that the distinctive characteristics of members of a particular race are a result of their inherited genes. They often limited their understanding of race to skin color and physical attributes until 1758 where a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various

1. Did the construction of the phylogenetic tree based on the 14 living Caminalcules change the way you would group Caminalcules species in your taxonomic classification (chart)? What does this suggest about classification based on strictly of similarity versus evolutionary relationship?

  Once the Romans began conquering territories throughout Europe, the Romans spread their language that they spoke, Latin around Europe. The people of the lands that the Romans conquered spoke different languages than the Romans however. So, what happened was that Latin would mix with the native languages evolving into languages of their own. These languages are known as the Romance Languages which are French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. These languages are similar to each other and are all still used today in Europe and around the

English is the main language of the Western world. Many English words originated from the Roman language of Latin. Simple English words such as ?architecture?, ?balm?, ?determine? and ?say? have been derived from Latin. Just flip through a dictionary and an endless amount of words have come from Latin. If the Ancient Romans didn?t have and create the language of Latin, we would probably lose half our vocabulary, because of the great role it has played in making the language of English. The

In the mid-nineteenth century, people focused more on the question from the New Testament of whether all humans are from “one blood” (Fredrickson 2015: 66). Others believed that people originate from three to five different species of which were all created separately and contain different aptitudes. In England, scientific racism did not become popular until the mid-nineteenth century, due to the strong evangelical Christian beliefs that all human beings are decedents of Adam and Eve (66). The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, attempted to classify humans into categories in 1735. He believed that different types of humans could be classified as monstrous and mythical. Among these types included Africans, Europeans, Asians, and Native Americans. He described black people as “crafty, indolent, negligent… Governed by caprice” and Europeans as “acute, inventive…Governed by laws” (56). Voltaire was mainly hostile towards Christianity. Because of this, he disliked the Jewish people for being connected to the New Testament. He claimed that each human race was a separate species that developed at different rates. The Jews all contained a set of undesirable traits that were permanent (62).

As Europeans began to explore they were in need of a way to categorize their findings, including other humans (Race).

Charles Darwin began his scientific breakthroughs and upcoming theories when he began an expedition trip to the Galapagos Islands of South America. While studying there, he discovered that each island had its own type of plant and animal species. Although these plants and animals were similar in appearance, they had other characteristics that made them differ from one another and seem to not appear as similar. Darwin questioned why these plants and animals were on these islands and why they are different in ways.

After discovering dinosaurs, Paleontologists then had to classify and name the fossils and dinosaurs they belonged to.

"Nothing is more remarkable than Aristotle 's efforts to exhibit the relationships of living things as a scala naturae.” Charles Singer, a modern British historian, and zoologist quotes referring to Aristotle’s “History of Animals” which classified organisms in relation to a hierarchical "ladder of life" (scala naturae).