Explain the work of Linnaeus in animal Taxonomy?
In 18th century, the work of Linnaeus and his followers (Haartman, 1751, 1764, Kolreuter, 1761-66) helped systematic to advance further. Linnaeus-was first to introduce the hierarchical system both in animal and plant kingdom. He followed four categories (class, order, genus and species) for the animal world.
He also used the name Mammalla instead of Quadrupeda in 1758. He presented the first character-based classification which serves as basis for the arrangement of specimens in the collections and the binomial nomenclature for information storage and retrieval system for the great bulk of biological data. He was called "Father of 'taxonomy"
The criticism and improvements of the Linnean system continued but the first serious attempt to improve it was made by Lamarck. He divided the animal kingdom into three section on the basis of their mental capacities. His division of animals into four major types was-vertebrates, molluscs, arthropods and radiates.