ABSTRACT
Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing and classifying living organisms. The system most scientists use classes each living creature into a series of seven or eight taxa which are organised from the most general to the most specific: these are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. The history of taxonomy in classical antiquity is somewhat anomalous: Aristotle of course stands as the originator of the classifying tradition, as he brought his formidable intelligence to bear on the issue of how animals can usefully be grouped. Aelian's classes of marine animals seem to be drawn directly from Aristotle, but the groupings of land animals are much more various, moving from description of bodily form to distinction by teeth, then by habitat, and then by hooves and feet, finally moving into birds. In Mesopotamia, Sumerian and Akkadian literature distinguished animals from humans, gods and daemons and ancient lexica presented words for animals in long lists.
