Jess Shaw, age 13, of Reno, Nevada, for his question:
WHEN WAS THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY DEVELOPED?
Zoology is the branch of biology that is devoted to the study of the animal kingdom. The study of zoology can be viewed as a series of efforts to analyze and classify animals. And we know that attempts at classification were made as early as 400 B.C.
Aristotle was the first to devise a system of classifying animals that recognized a basic unity of plan among diverse organisms. He arranged groups of animals according to mode of reproduction and habitat.
Observing the development of such animals as the dogfish, chick and octopus, he noted that general structures appear before specialized ones, and he also distinguished between asexual and sexual reproduction.
Many of the ancient statements regarding zoology proved to be wrong later. For example, the ancient Greek physician Galen presented misconceptions regarding the movement of blood that remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years. In the 17th century, the English physician William Harvey established the true mechanism of blood circulation.
Actually, until the Middle Ages, zoology was a conglomeration of folklore, superstition, misconception and descriptions of animals, but during the 12th century it began to emerge as a science.
Perhaps the most important naturalist of the early era was the German scholar St. Albertus Magnus, who denied many of the superstitions associated with biology.
Classification dominated zoology throughout most of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus developed a system of nomenclature that is still used today.
Although the word "cell" was introduced in the 17th century, it was not until 1839 that two German scientists, Matthias Schieiden and Theodore Schwann, proved that the cell is the common structural unit of living things.
The organization of scientific expeditions in the 18th and 19th centuries gave trained observers the opportunity to study plant and animal life thoughout the world. The most famous expedition was the voyage of the Beagle in the early 1830s. During this voyage, Charles Darwin observed the plant and animal life of South America and Australia and developed his theory of evolution by natural selection.
In the 20th century zoology has become more diversified and less confined to such traditional concerns as classification and anatomy. Broadening its range to include such studies as genetics, ecology and biochemistry, zoology has become an interdisciplinary field applying a great variety of techniques to obtaining knowledge of the animal kingdom.
The current study of zoology has two main focuses: on particular taxonomic groups and on the structures and processes common to most of them.
Taxonomically oriented studies concentrate on the different divisions of animal life. Morphology, the study of structure, examines entire structures or systems.