Losing Linnaeus?

Living on Earth
The World

The system we use to organize life is based on the work of the 18th century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. But new tools, like DNA analysis, are giving modern taxonomists information about species that Linnaeus would never have dreamed of. Now, a group of scientists are suggesting that it’s time to ditch the old organization of Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Living on Earth’s Ian Gray reports.

Will you support The World?

The story you just read is accessible and free to all because our listener community contributes to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciate our coverage, if there has been a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work? All donations between now and June 30 will be matched 2:1, tripling your impact.