All thinkers

Carl Linnaeus: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Carl Linnaeus, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• One naturalist gave every species on Earth a two-word name

  Before 1735, a single plant might carry a Latin description a dozen words long. Carl Linnaeus's system of genus-plus-species, laid out in Systema Naturae, let every organism be nam…

  — Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae

• This tree's closest relatives all went extinct over 60 million years ago

  Ginkgo biloba is the sole survivor of a plant lineage stretching back over 200 million years, making it a living fossil with no close relatives at all. The whole group nearly vanis…

  — Carl Linnaeus, Mantissa Plantarum Altera

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