In 1758 Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus published the tenth edition of his Systema naturae. The tome is regarded by taxonomist, those who classify living organisms, as the first definitive catalog and classification of known living things. Linnaeus is consider second only to Darwin in the naturalist’s pantheon as the term Homo sapiens, or thinking man, was coined in his 1758 text. Today every eight grader is familiar with the species assignment.

However, few people today are familiar with the synonym Linnaeus provided for man in his text. Directly across from his Homo sapiens entry Linnaeus recorded with words H. diurnus or man of the day. But even more interesting is that below the entry there was another line dedicated to a further species classification. It was there that Linnaeus wrote the words Homo troglodytes and H. nocturnes, man of the night.

It is still unclear just who or what Linnaeus was writing of.

For more information on Linnaeus, read Armand Marie Leroi's Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body available via Amazon.

Labels: science