Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark

The 18 chalptcrs cover just about every subject that could be subsumed under this title, from speculations about Linnaeus' childhood to problems with computerizing the names of all the world's plants and animals. The lengthiest chapter, 54 pages, was authored by B. Dayrat; it is a history of zoological nomenclature, written in a most engaging style. It may be old stuff to zoologists, but every botanist with an interest in nomenclature will want to read it. --Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, Wisconsin-Oshkosh University, in Plant Science Bulletin 57( I) 2011 Summing Up: Essential. Active biological collections serving upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. --E. Delson, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College, in CHOICE, April 2011 Overall, the smorgasbord of Systema Naturae 250 is a fitting tribute to the past 250 years of zoological nomenclature. This book justly celebrates the enormous accomplishments of the taxonomic community in cataloging almost 1.5 million animal species, and a method of scientific inquiry that has endured for more than a quarter of a millennium. This is illustrated in the book's final chapter, in which Fredrik Ronquist reminds us that the birthplace of Linnaeus still has an active role in modern taxonomy through the work of the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative. The positive outlook presented by Polaszek and colleagues is especially encouraging from a discipline that at times has an unfortunate tendency to focus more on what it has not done, than on what it has achieved. --Vincent S. Smith, Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum Syst. Biol. 59(6):757-760, 2010