Zoology

Iberian lynx, species in grave danger of extinction.

The zoology (from the Greek «ζωον» zoon = "animal", and «-λογία» -logy, treated, study, science) is the biological discipline that is in charge of the scientific study of animals. Zoology is a subdivision of biology, dedicated to the study of animal diversity, including how they function, reproduce and interact the animals.

History

Man's interest in other animals and the great diversity of their forms began in antiquity. In Greece, in the s. IV a. C., Aristotle described numerous species and made an outline of the classification of the animal kingdom; but many of his conclusions lacked scientific rigor, since they were not based on experiments.

With the Renaissance, zoological research adopted a truly scientific character and some Aristotelian theories and many fanciful concepts held until then were discarded. The invention of the microscope by the Dutchman Anton van Leeuwenhoek made it possible to study the tissues of animals and previously unknown beings because they were too small to be seen with the naked eye: microbes or microorganisms.

Late in the 18th century, the Swede Charles Linnaeus was the first to undertake a systematic classification of animals and plants. His work was continued by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. In 1859 Charles Darwin released his theory of the evolution of species, which meant a great contribution to zoological studies.

General zoology

It takes care of all the generic and common aspects that animals have before proceeding to a taxonomic description.

Descriptive zoology

Once the animal world has been studied in its embryological, histological, functional aspects, etc.

Systematic classification

In the study of plants and animals, specialists are interested in both the similarities and the differences that species present in order to achieve a logical and systematic grouping of them.

Classification systems

Taxonomy encompasses the systematic exploration and tabulation of facts concerning the recognition of all extant and extinct species of animals and their distribution in space and time.

The main varieties of zoo workers placed under this heading are:

1. The old museologists and their modern representatives, the preservatives and descriptors of zoological collections.
2. Early explorers and modern travelers and writers about zoogeography.
3. Fossil and paleontologist collectors.

Gradually, since the times of Hunter and Cuvier, the anatomical study has become more and more disassociated from morphography, until today no one considers an animal study of value that does not include in its focus the internal structure, the histology and embryology.

The real rise of zoology after the legendary period of the Middle Ages is linked to the name of an Englishman, Edward Wotton, born in Oxford in 1492, who practiced as a physician in London and died in 1555. He published a treatise entitled De differentiis animalium in Paris in 1552. In many ways Wotton was simply an exponent of Aristotle, whose doctrine (with various imaginary additions) formed the true basis of zoological knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. Wotton's merit was his rejection of legendary and fantastic arguments, and his return to Aristotle and the observation of nature.

The most effective method of noting the progress of zoology during the XVI, XVII and XVIII is to compare the classificatory conceptions of Aristotle with those of the successive naturalists, those who can be found in the works of Caldon.

Subdisciplines and related sciences

• Acuariology
• Animal anatomy
• Comparative anatomy
• Aracnology
• Anthropology
• Bacteriology
• Biospeleology
• Marine biology
• Iron
• Carcinology
• Cytology
• Embryology
• Entomology
• Helmitologia
• Ethology
• Animal physiology
• Genetic
• Herpetology
• Histology
• Ictiology
• Malacology
• Ornithology
• Paleontology and Paleozoology
• Parasitology
• Theriology (also called Mastozoology)
• Systematics, Taxonomy and Philogeny
• Veterinary
• Zootecnia
• Zootomy
• Pascentiulogy

Featured Zoologists

• Aristotle. Considered the first zoologist.
• Carlos Linneo (May 23, 1707-10, January 1778). Father of taxonomy and binomial nomenclature.
• Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (7 September 1707- 16 April 1788). Naturalist and author of the Histoire naturelle.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1 August 1744-18 December 1829). Father of the invertebrate zoology and one of the founders of evolutionary thought.
• Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745-3 March 1808). Entomology, one of the first to follow the Linneo classification system.
• William Kirby (19 September 1759-4 July 1850). Father of entomology.
• Thomas Say (27 June 1787-10 October 1843). Entomology.
• Louis Agassiz (28 May 1807-14 December 1873). Malacology, ictiology.
• Charles Darwin (12 February 1809-19 April 1882). Theory of evolution; taxonomy of circuses.
• Ernst Haeckel (16 February 1834-9 August 1919). Evolutionism, embryology.
• Victor Hensen (10 February 1835-5 April 1924). Plantology.
• Jakob von Uexküll (8 September 1864-25 July 1944). Animal behavior (ethology), invertebrate zoology.
• Pierre-Paul Grassé (27 November 1895-9 July 1985). He developed the theory of Estigmergia.
• Libbie Hyman (6 December 1888-3 August 1969). Zoology of invertebrates.
• Konrad Lorenz (7 November 1903-27 February 1989). Ethology.
• Ernst Mayr (5 July 1904-3 February 2005). Influentious evolutionary biologist, one of the founders of the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary theory in the 1940s.
• Arthur David Hasler (5 January 1908-23 March 2001). Limnology, ictiology, salmon migration.
• Roger Tory Peterson (28 August 1908-28 July 1996. Ornithology.
• Archie Carr (16 June 1909-21 May 1987). Herpetology, specialist in sea turtles.
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau (11 June 1910-25 June 1997). Marine biology.
• Gerald Malcom Durrell (7 January 1925-30 January 1995). Zoologist, conservationist and writer. Jersey Zoo Founder (now Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust).
• Desmond Morris (born January 24, 1928). Ethology.
• Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente (14 March 1928-14 March 1980). Ethology.
• E. O. Wilson (born in 1929). Entomology, founder of sociobiology.
• Dian Fossey (16 January 1932-26 December 1985). Primary.
• Jane Goodall, (born in 1934), Primatology.
• Jonathan Kingdon (born in 1935). Mastozoologist and expert artist in African mammals.
• Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941). Ethologist, evolutionary theorist and scientific disclosure writer.
• Miguel Delibes de Castro (born February 12, 1947). Mammals, founder of the SECEM.
• Alfred Delmonte (born in 1977). Reptiles and amphibians, founder of HISPAHERPS INC.
• David W. Macdonald. Wild mammals.
• Ron Nowak. Wild mammals.
• Ernest P. Walker. Wild mammals.