Linnaeus, Carl

Linnaeus, Carl

(1707–78) Swedish biologist, author of Systema Naturae (1753), in which he outlined the binomial system of classifying organisms (see BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE). He is thus regarded as the founder of modern systematics. Linnaeus was a highly competent biologist who for a long time supported the idea that species were fixed, an anti-evolutionary view. However, he probably changed his views on this in later life.