Who proposed the systematic classification of plants and animals in the mid-eighteenth century?

• A. Carolus Linnaeus
• B. Charles Darwin
• C. Gregor Mendel
• D. Aristotle

Answer: (A)

Taxonomy and a universal naming system for living beings were being developed to bring order to the natural world. Carolus Linnaeus advanced this idea by creating a formal, hierarchical way to classify plants and animals and by introducing the binomial nomenclature—the two-part Latin names used for each species. His work, Systema Naturae, published in the 1730s, laid out a structured framework with ranks like genus and species (and later broader groups), so scientists everywhere could communicate clearly about the same organisms, regardless of language.

That universal naming and structured grouping is what makes Linnaeus the correct answer for this mid-18th-century milestone. The other figures contributed in different ways or in later periods: Aristotle laid early, more informal classification in ancient times, Mendel studied genetic inheritance in the 19th century, and Darwin proposed evolution and natural selection in the 19th century. Linnaeus’s system is the specific move that established a formal, widely adopted method for classifying and naming plants and animals.