About Project Linnaeus

"Nomina si nescis, perit et cognitio rerum."
("Who knoweth not the names, knoweth not the subject.")
-- Carl von Linne

At risk of scaring some away, I must first say that Project Linnaeus is a project dealing primarily with classification of biological entities, or taxonomy. Rest assured, however, I am aware that a project that sets out merely to classify living organisms, showing one endless phylogenetic diagram after another, may be found to be dull to those without the enthusiasm that I have for understanding how the organisms on our planet are related to one another. My belief, however, is that taxonomy only serves as a starting point from whence we may set out upon the vast ocean of the science of biology that seeks to understand all living organisms, a daunting task from which is required at least a basic understanding of the multitude of creatures that breath, grow, walk, swim, and live on our planet. In order to adequately describe any single species that is living or has lived on our planet is no easy task, and even to describe the simplest creature one must have an arsenal of the vocabulary of biology. It is for this reason, that Project Linnaeus also serves as an encyclopedia of biology. Yet another way to think of this site is as a field guide or key, not unlike a book that describes, for example, the birds of eastern North America or the trees of Britain, but more akin to a comprehensive project that seeks to describe all things that have lived on our planet.

A name given to a living organism in any language is certainly not as important as the organism itself. It is not unusual to encounter an avid birder who can tell you that the Latin name of the American Robin is Turdus migratorius, but who is unable to describe the nest, eggs, breeding habits, or calls of this species. It is the name of an organism, however, that serves as the focal point from which we all can set about discussing our observations of the biological world. The nomenclature, however, doesn't stop with the naming of the species alone; the naming goes on to describe every digit, tissue, nerve, and fiber of the organism and it here that the biologist wanders dangerously far into the world of reductionist biology and it is sad but true that many lose sight of the original beauty and poetic license that originally brought the person to become interested in biology. It is for this reason, that I believe that common person, the amateur and untrained biologist (such as myself) may reinvigorate the passion for understanding a describing this natural world. Further, I find it vital to incorporate the ideas of the amateur with the professional.

The science of taxonomy is a bit problematic at this writing, with differing schools developing different styles of taxonomy that they believe are best at describing biological entities. The most notable divergence from classical taxonomy is the school of cladistical systematics, which seeks to describe all species based on their exact evolutionary ancestry, rather than similarities. At first glance, cladistics seems little different than traditional taxonomy as they are both hierarchical in nature, but great differences arise in the details and a truly cladistical taxonomy would do away with many of the long-standing tenets of nomenclature first devised by Linnaeus.

I have stated that I am an untrained biologist and therefore it must be evident that my writings will be more in the line of natural history than biology; more macroscopic than microscopic, more holisitc than reductionist, and more aligned to ecology than the medical sciences. I am not in anyway opposed to bringing these concepts to the site, I will only have to leave them for someone else to write about. Actually, the ideas that any professional biologist wishes to share on this site will certainly be added.

more coming soon