Some 2,300 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle
collected animals, dissected them, and wrote extensive descriptions of their
anatomy. He grouped together animals with similar characteristics,
described the social organization of bees, the embryological development of
chickens, and
distinguished whales and dolphins from fish. Modem scientists point to
Aristotle as the father of the scientific method. In the centuries after
Aristotle’s era, however, superstitions and fantasies about animals often
buried facts. For example, after the fall of Rome, a book called the
Physiologus by an unknown author examined 49
different animals
(some fictional, such as the unicorn), giving each an allegorical
interpretation. The Physiologus gained
popularity as
a teaching companion for the Bible and remained in widespread use for
more than a thousand years.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, zoology - the study of animals and animal
life - emerged as a science, driven by the work of the German scholar St. Albertus Magnus (ca. 1193-1280).
Magnus rejected the superstitions associated with biology and reintroduced
the work of Aristotle. In the
15th and 16th centuries, Leonardo da Vinci
dissected and
compared the structure of human and animals, establishing the concept of homology, the correspondence of parts in
different kinds of animals.
Technological advances were first applied to the study
of zoology in the 19th century. In 1839, the German scientists Matthias
Schleiden and Theodor Schwann used microscopes to prove that the cell is the
common structural unit of all living things. This concept inspired Karl Enist von Baer to establish the
field of embryology and Claude Bernard to advance the study of animal physiology. In
the 19th century, the slow acceptance of the doctrine of organic evolution
pioneered by Charles Darwin came about.
Today, zoology is not confined to traditional concerns such as classification
and anatomy. It is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses such studies as biochemistry,
ecology, and genetics to better understand the many diverse types of animals
that exist today and have existed throughout history. (The New York Times
‘Smarter by Sunday – 52 Weekends of Essential Knowledge for the Curious Mind’)
