The 12th edition of ' was the last edition of ' to be overseen by its author,

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. It was published by Laurentius Salvius in Holmia (Stockholm) in three volumes, with parts appearing from 1766 to 1768. It contains many species not covered in the previous edition, the 10th edition which was the starting point for

zoological nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

Starting point

Only five editions of ' were written by Linnaeus himself, namely the first, second, sixth, tenth and twelfth. When a "starting point" for

was first considered, in the Strickland Code of 1843, the 12th edition of ' was chosen, so that any names which Linnaeus had altered from previous editions would be recorded in their final state. It was later replaced by the 10th edition as the starting point for most zoological nomenclature. The starting point for most names in

botanical nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; Botany, botanical nomenclature then provides na ...

is the 1753 work '.

Format

Linnaeus divided the 12th edition into three volumes, the first of which was published in two parts. Volume 1 covered ' – the

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

kingdom – with the first 532 pages appearing as Part 1 in 1766, and pages 533–1327 appearing as Part 2 in 1767. Volume 2 covered ' – the

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

kingdom; it comprised 736 pages and appeared in 1767, with an additional 142-page '. Volume 3 covered ' – the mineral kingdom – and appendices to all three volumes; it comprised 236 pages and was published in 1768. Including appendices,

front matter Book design is the graphic art of determining the visual and physical characteristics of a book. The design process begins after an author and editor finalize the manuscript, at which point it is passed to the production stage. During productio ...

and back matter, the three volumes cover around 2,400 pages.

Novelties

Many species were included in the 12th edition which had not been included in earlier editions. For example, Linnaeus had included 700 species of

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

in the 10th edition, and added a further 100 species for the 12th edition. Similarly, the number of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species in the 12th edition was twice the number in the 10th edition.

Sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s were included in the 12th edition, in the class "''Zoophyta''", having been omitted from previous editions. The 12th edition also included the hundred insect species published separately in ', and omitted a claim which Linnaeus had made in earlier editions, that new species do not form, implicitly allowing

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

. Also, on the last page of the book, Linnaeus added a new genus he named "chaos" in order zoophyta, class vermes. Into that order were included some species, like chaos fungorum, chaos ustilagum, chaos protheus, chaos redivivum, chaos infusorium. In fact, chaos infusorium included every known

protist A protist ( ) or protoctist is any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, land plant, or fungus. Protists do not form a natural group, or clade, but are a paraphyletic grouping of all descendants of the last eukaryotic common ancest ...

of the 18th century (except volvox, that was divided into his own genus).

References

{{Authority control 1766 in literature 1766 introductions Book series introduced in the 1760s 1766 non-fiction books 1767 non-fiction books 1768 non-fiction books Systema Naturae