Carl Linnaeus, who established a taxonomy system for defining species of organisms, was from which country?

Carol Linnaeus (1701-1778) was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician who formalized a scientific system for naming organisms. He formalized a binomial nomenclature, a system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages.

The first part of the name of an organism is the generic name identifying the genus to which the species belongs while the second part, the specific name identifies the species within the genus. For example, modern humans belong to the genus ‘Homo’ and within this genus to the species ‘sapiens’. The Latin ‘homo sapiens’ has been translated into English to mean, ‘wise man, rational man, understanding man’.

Linnaeus was born in southern Sweden and received his higher education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738 where he studied and also published the first edition of his ‘Systema Naturae’ (Latin- ‘System of Nature’) in the Netherlands. When he returned to Sweden and became a professor, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals.

At the time of his death, known as the ‘father of modern taxonomy’, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.