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The evolution of the code of zoological nomenclature

1981; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 1981; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3366/anh.1981.019

1755-6260

David Heppell,

Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology

By the eighteenth century taxonomy had become chaotic. N o laws governed the formation or regulated the use of names and widespread confusion was consequent. Taxonomy resembled a language with a rich vocabulary but lacking a structured grammar. The necessary structure was forged by the 29-year-old Linnaeus as a series of aphorisms in his Fundamenta Botanica of 1736. These principles, devised initially for his own guidance, were elaborated the following year in his Critica Botanica, with the trenchant observation mine will be true until some other prin­ ciples are shown to be truer. Linnaeus indicated that these principles, although published in a botanical work, were equally valid in the animal and mineral kingdoms. From this early period have come down certain fundamental precepts still embodied in the current Codes: Universality — any taxon may have only one valid name; Homonymy — any name may be used validly foe only one taxon (and any other taxon with the same name must be re-named); and Conservation — if any taxon is subdivided the name for the whole must be retained as the name for one of the parts. It is of interest that the Principle of Priority scarcely came into Linnaeus's consideration, much of his argument being concerned with the determination of the most appropriate name. The name of a species at this time consisted of the uninominal generic name and a polynominal differential diagnosis. Linnaeus believed that the diagnosis need never be more than twelve words long. It was to these names that he devoted much of his creative life, seeking to perfect his system­ atic revelation of the Creator's divine plan, and paradoxically we honour him now for having got rid of them.