8/17/23, 9:08 AM M1 - L1. Historical Background of the Development of Zoology: General Zoology-IRROMERO 8/17/23, 9:08 AM M1 - L1.
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M1 - L1. Historical Background of the
Development of Zoology
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Zoology is also known as animal science. This is one of the fields of biological
sciences that deals with animals. It studies about the morphological, anatomical and
physiological characteristics of animals, from their microscopic to their macroscopic
structures. It also includes the evolutionary, taxonomical and ecological perspectives
on animal life.
The history on the development of zoology as a science traces the study of animal
kingdom from ancient to modern times. In the Ancient Greeks, the systematic study
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of animals became rational, which was encouraged by the extensive descriptions of
living things. Aristotle (384 – 322 b.c.) who created the science of biology, attempted
a comprehensive classification of animals and established some type of hierarchy of
animals based on the logic of structure in his zoological works, History of Animals,
Parts of Animals, and Generation of Animals. Hence, he is considered as the
Father of Zoology.
In Roman times, Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23 – 79) wrote Historia naturalis (Natural
History) an encyclopedic compilation of myths and facts about celestial bodies,
geography, animals and plants, metals, and stone. The said material consists of 37
volumes where Volumes VII to XI are about Zoology in which Volume VIII deals with
land animals. Galen (129 – 199?) dissected animals for his studies in human anatomy,
and his works became the standard for use in medicine throughout the Middle Ages.
Zoology continued in the Aristotelian tradition by the Middle Ages. Gradually,
naturalists became more critical as they based their works from directly observing
animal life, so that mechanistic views of life processes provided a hopeful method of
analyzing animal functions, such as Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564), introduced
modern Western medicine with his human anatomy treatise, De humani corporis
fabrica. He was considered as a great anatomist and illustrator, and used animal parts
to show structures such as the kidney. Conrad Gessner (1516 – 1565) was known for
his great zoological work, Historiae animalium, which was considered as the starting-
point of modern zoology. Hence, he is regarded as the Father of Modern Zoology.
William Harvey (1578 – 1657) in his book, “Anatomical dissertation concerning
the motion of the heart and blood”, he demonstrated the circulation of blood and
functions of the heart, arteries and veins.
In the late 16th century (late 1500s and early 1600s), the Dutch father-and-son team,
Hans and Zaccharias Janssen was said to be the ones who invented the first simple
and compound microscope with 3x and 9x magnifications, but they were not given the
proper recognition, because they never published their work.
However, improvements to microscopy paved way for many discoveries in the 17th
century (late 1600s), Robert Hooke (1535 – 1703), in his published book,
Micrographia (1665), presented the first published depiction of a microorganism, the
microfungus Mucor., and included his observation on cork of plant, describing it as
composed of tiny boxes resembling the rooms of monastery, which we now know as
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cells. Thus, he became the Father of Cellular Biology. John Ray (1627 – 1705) cellular works in zoology were established in most of the researches done. Nikolaas
sought to understand and classify all known animals based on internal physical Tinbergen (1907 – 1988), one of the founders of ethology, used field experiments by
characteristics like anatomy, and divided birds into land and waterfowl in which he altering the surroundings of the wasp’s burrows to observe how they go back to them
included whales and dolphins as a special group among fishes. Marcello Malpighi after hunting.
(1628 – 1694) and Jan Swammerdam (1637 – 1680), discovered the role of
The ability to compare the DNA of different species improved the knowledge of
capillaries, added to the body of information about animals. Later, Anton van
evolutionary relationships. Desmond Morris (1928 - ) applied ethological techniques
Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723) with the use of his own simple microscope that had 25x
to humanity in his bestseller "The Naked Ape".
to 250x magnification, reported his discovery on bacteria and protozoa, which he
called as “little animals”. Microscopy then became the backbone of identifying and American sociobiologist and entomologist Edward O. Wilson (1929 - ) worked and
understanding the microscopic structures of both macroscopic and microscopic wrote the preservation of natural habitats and creatures. But one of the challenges
organisms. now to modern zoology is the destruction of vast of the animal habitats, and the
extinction of many animal species where much of their natural behavior cannot be
In the 18th century, zoology passed through reforms provided by the system of
observed.
nomenclature of Carolus Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), the Binomial System of
Nomenclature, introduced in his Systema naturae (1735), that marked the beginning
of the modern system of classification and still in practice all over the world. To understand more about how the science of zoology developed and to know more
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Zoology in the 19 century was dominated by Comparative morphology. Georges about those personalities who contributed to its development,
Cuvier (1769 – 1832) did not only established many of the fundamental taxonomic CLICK this LINK https://alchetron.com/History-of-zoology-(through-1859)#Pre-
groups used by modern zoologists, but together with J. B. Lamarck studied scientific-zoology, (https://alchetron.com/History-of-zoology-(through-1859)#Pre-
invertebrates and vertebrates, respectively, and established the relationships of fossils scientific-zoology,) and read the article, "History of Zoology (through 1859)".
to recent forms. Matthias Schleiden (1804 – 1881), a botanist, and Theodore
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Schwann (1810 – 1882), a zoologist, formulated the first unifying principle of biology,
the Cell Theory, stating that, “The cell is the structural unit of all living things”. Rudolf
Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821 – 1902) formulated the other component of the Cell
Theory, which states that “Cell came from pre-existing cell”. Along with the discovery
of the nucleus in plant cells by Robert Brown (1831). Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744
– 1829) best known for his Lamarckism, a theory of evolution which says that
acquired characteristics are inheritable.

Although Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) is associated with exotic animals in his
studies on the HMS Beagle (Her/His Majesty Ship), together with A. R. Wallace, he is
also known with the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, a significant mark in
zoology and considered as the second unifying principle of biology.

In the 20th century, zoology became a laboratory science. Technological advances

allowed scientists to have direct observations on biological processes. Molecular and
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