He has been dubbed “The Father of Modern Taxonomy,” “The Father of Modern Ecology,” Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists), “The Pliny of the North,” and “The Second Adam.” He is credited with creating the classification schema known as binomial nomenclature, and today, he turns 305 years old. Of course, we’re talking about Carl Linnaeus, and we’re celebrating his birthday with the release of our latest iTunes U collection dedicated to him.

Carl Linnaeus was born May 23rd, 1707, in Småland, Sweden. As evidenced by his later publications, his first and primary passion was botany. At an early age, he took an interest in plants, eventually coming under the tutelage of Johan Rothman, the state doctor of Småland. Linnaeus first learned to classify plants under Rothman’s direction, using the system developed by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, which, though based on artificial similarities between organisms, nevertheless was the first system to make a clear distinction between genus and species.

In 1728, Linnaeus enrolled at Uppsala University, where he made quick progress in the field of botany and, by only his second year, was himself giving lectures. During these years, Linnaeus began to question Tournefort’s classification system, and thus decided to develop his own. Linnaeus’ system arranged plants according to the number of stamens and pistils each possessed. This new system formed the basis of his work in the critical publication Genera Plantarum (first edition published 1737). A young German botanical draughtsman named Georg Dionys Ehret crafted a visual representation of this system, which Linnaeus included in Genera Plantarum (though without acknowledgement to Ehret). The image represents the earliest illustration of Linnaeus’ classification system for plants.

Ehret’s illustration of Linnaeus’ classification system

Linnaeus continued to revise Genera Plantarum, publishing a total of five editions (fifth edition published 1754). During the years between the publication of the first and fifth editions of this work, Linnaeus also published Species Plantarum (first edition published 1753), which arranged all plants known to him into orders, classes, and genera according to the Genera sexual system. Species Plantarum provided formal, multiple word descriptions in Latin of each species, as well as an additional epithet for easy reference. The combination of the genus and epithet quickly became a popular method by which to refer to a plant species. Species Plantarum is considered the inception of botanical nomenclature, and the use of a consistent naming structure based on the methods presented in Species and Genera was a vital step in the maturation of Linnaeus’ binomial schema.

In 1735, even before the publication of the first edition of Genera Plantarum, Linnaeus published the first edition of Systema Naturae. This first edition outlined Linnaeus’ ideas for the hierarchical arrangement of the natural world, dividing it into the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. His classification of the plant kingdom followed the sexual system he presented in Genera. However, it was not until the tenth edition of Systema Naturae that the binomial classification system we so readily associate with Linnaeus came into its own. While Species Plantarum had already established a binomial naming system for plants, the tenth edition of Systema Naturae (published in 1758) organized, for the first time, the animal kingdom according to this system – Kingdom, Class, Order, Genera, and Species. Thus, it represents the beginning of zoological nomenclature and, together with the first edition of Species Plantarum, is considered the starting point of binomial nomenclature.

Today, we highlight Linnaeus’ contributions to science with the release of our newest iTunes U Collection: The Carl Linnaeus Collection. The collection features 13 of Linnaeus’ publications (including the first edition of Species Plantarum, the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, and the fifth edition of Genera Plantarum), as well as two additional items about Carl Linnaeus and his sexual classification system (Carolvs Linnaevs by Edward Lee Greene and New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus by Robert John Thonrton). You can download all of these titles directly onto your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch for free through iTunes. And, of course, you can download them directly to your computer through the BHL interface.

So Happy Birthday, Carl Linnaeus! Our present to you: Your very own iTunes U collection!

As the planet warms, habitats for a myriad of species worldwide are changing, and perhaps those most affected are the species living in the arctic regions of the globe. These areas are seeing significant increases in average temperatures, changing the dynamics for the life found there. A poignant example of this is the Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus), a species whose habitat is being encroached upon by the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) as increasing temperatures make the arctic more habitable for the latter (see EOL’s “Threats” tab on the Arctic Fox page).

The concept of threatened and endangered species is not a new idea for most of the world. Most are now well aware of the shadow that looms over so much of the magnificent life on our planet. While many efforts are underway around the globe to protect the species that are threatened, it is important to continue to raise awareness of the plight faced by so many of the creatures that share our planet. So, in an effort to do so, we highlight this week the Sun Parakeet, or the Aratinga solstitialis, one of the many species of threatened birds listed in this week’s book of the week, The World Checklist of Threatened Birds (1990).

The Sun Parakeet is native to northeastern South America, particularly in “the north Brazilian state of Roraima, Southern Guyana, extreme southern Suriname, and southern French Guiana.” Recent surveys revealing that the species may now be extirpated from Southern Guyana and rare in Roraima have excited recent discussions over the threatened status of this bird, and it is now listed as “Endangered” in the 2008 IUCN Red List. Deforestation, hunting, poaching, and capture for sale in the pet trade are the greatest threats facing this species.

The taxanomic history of this bird is interesting, beginning with its first description by Linnaeus in volume 1 of his 1758 work Systema Naturae. In this publication, Linnaeus situated the Sun Parakeet in the genus Psittacus. However, this genus is now reserved solely for the type species with which it is associated, the African Grey Parrot, and Aratinga solstitialis is now found in the genus Aratinga. Besides being known by the common name of Sun Parakeet, Aratinga solstitialis is also called the Sun Conure.

Aratinga solstitialis is a complex species, containing what have long been considered three sub-species: the Jandaya Parakeet, the Golden-capped Parakeet, and the Sulphur-breasted Parakeet. Recent discussions, however, have suggested that these sub-species are in fact separate species, or that the “Sun Parakeet and the Sulphur-breasted Parakeet represent one species, while the Jandaya Parakeet and Golden-capped Parakeet represent a second.” However, these species will interbreed in captivity (with the exception of the Sulphur-breasted Parakeet, of which, since it was only recently discovered in 2005, it is suspected but not confirmed that successful interbreeding with the three other mentioned species can occur).

The Sun Parakeet is among those bird species listed in The World Checklist of Threatened Birds (1990). Take a few moments to examine this species on EOL, and discover this species, along with many others, in this week’s book of the week. Think about what you can do to help ensure that these species are around for many generations to come.