"Natural" Classification of Species as Evidence for Evolution
Actually, the nested arrangement of life was recognized long before Darwin. Starting with the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in , biologists began classifying animals and plants, discovering that they consistently fell into what was called a “natural” classification. Strikingly, different biologists came up with nearly identical groupings. This means that these groupings are not subjective artifacts of a human need to classify, but that they tell us something real and fundamental about nature. But nobody knew what that something was until Darwin came along, and showed that the nested arrangement of life is precisely what evolution predicts. Creatures with recent common ancestors share many traits, while those whose common ancestors lay in the distant past are more dissimilar. The “natural” classification is itself strong evidence for evolution.
Notes:
Taxonomists working independently naturally "nest" species in the same groups.
Folksonomies: evolution species taxonomy
Taxonomies:
/business and industrial/energy/natural gas (0.576543)
/science/biology (0.484339)
/science/social science/history/genealogy (0.396002)
Keywords:
nested arrangement (0.986079 (positive:0.426992)), botanist Carl Linnaeus (0.881413 (neutral:0.000000)), nearly identical groupings (0.866870 (neutral:0.000000)), common ancestors (0.758608 (positive:0.004925)), recent common ancestors (0.754990 (positive:0.234266)), Evolution Taxonomists (0.622574 (positive:0.311953)), different biologists (0.605376 (neutral:0.000000)), subjective artifacts (0.599537 (neutral:0.000000)), human need (0.571441 (neutral:0.000000)), strong evidence (0.570471 (positive:0.430446)), distant past (0.562301 (negative:-0.229341)), classification (0.488939 (positive:0.164714)), life (0.419158 (positive:0.426992)), species (0.412111 (positive:0.311953)), Darwin (0.362614 (negative:-0.503788)), groups (0.361518 (neutral:0.000000)), animals (0.359459 (neutral:0.000000)), plants (0.359378 (neutral:0.000000)), Darwin. (0.357288 (neutral:0.000000)), traits (0.357016 (neutral:0.000000))
Entities:
Darwin.:OperatingSystem (0.663430 (negative:-0.503788)), Carl Linnaeus:Person (0.642506 (neutral:0.000000))
Concepts:
Species (0.963668): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Biology (0.950143): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Life (0.858961): dbpedia | freebase
Biological classification (0.708076): dbpedia | freebase
Ecology (0.647276): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Evolution (0.642348): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Plant (0.620782): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Botany (0.607471): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Why Evolution Is True
