Animalia Paradoxa
Animalia Paradoxa[1] (Latin for "contradictory animals"; cf. paradox) are the mythical, magical or otherwise suspect animals included in early editions of Carl Linnaeus' seminal work Systema Naturae under the cryptid wastebasket taxon of "Paradoxa". It includes fantastic creatures found in medieval bestiaries as well as those reported by explorers from abroad. According to Swedish historian Gunnar Broberg, it was to offer a natural explanation and demystify the world of superstition.[2] Paradoxa was dropped from Linnaeus' classification system as of the 6th edition (1748).[3]
Cryptic creatures
Included in the 1st (1735) edition:
- Hydra: in 1735 Linnaeus inspected the alleged remains of a Hydra in Hamburg which turned out to be made from weasels and snake skins.
- Rana-Piscis: a South American frog which is significantly smaller than its tadpole stage; it was thus (incorrectly) reported to Linnaeus that the metamorphosis in this species went from 'frog to fish'. In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Linnaeus named the species Rana paradoxa, though its genus name was changed in 1830 to Pseudis.[4]
- Monoceros is in reality Monodon.
- Pelecanus: "Linnaeus thought [pelicans] might reflect the over-fervent imaginations of New World explorers"[5]
- Satyrus: Linnaeus wrote "hairy, bearded, with a manlike body, gesticulating much, very fallacious, is a species of monkey, if ever one has been seen."[6]
- Borometz (aka Scythian Lamb) "Linnaeus [...] had seen a faked vegetable lamb taken from China to Sweden by a traveler"[7]
- Phoenix
- Bernicla (aka Scottish Goose) Frederick Edward Hulme noted: "[The] barnacle-goose tree was a great article of faith with our ancestors in the Middle Ages."[8]
- Draco: Linnaeus wrote that it has a "snake body, two feet, two batlike wings which is a Lacerta alata or could be identified as a dried and rebuilt ray."[9][10][11]
- Automa Mortis
Four taxa were added in the 2nd (1740) edition:[12]
References
- ^ Systema Naturae 4th Edition (1744)
- ^ Tore Frängsmyr, Sten Lindroth, Gunnar Eriksson & Gunnar Broberg (1983). Linnaeus, the man and his work. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 176–177. ISBN 0711218412. http://books.google.com/?id=RrKiQgAACAAJ&dq=Linnaeus+the+man+and+his+works.
- ^ Sandra Knapp (2002). "Fact and fantasy". Nature 415 (6871): 479. doi:10.1038/415479a. Also available on Scribd.
- ^ S. W. Garman (1877). "Pseudis, the paradoxical frog". The American Naturalist 11 (10): 587–591. JSTOR 2447862. http://www.archive.org/stream/americannatural04instgoog#page/n591/mode/2up.
- ^ Andy Dobson, Kevin D. Lafferty, Armand M. Kuris, Ryan F. Hechinger & Walter Jetz (2008). "Homage to Linnaeus: How many parasites? How many hosts?" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (Suppl. 1): 11482–11489. doi:10.1073/pnas.0803232105. PMC 2556407. PMID 18695218. http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/eemb/labs/kuris/pubs/Dobson%20et%20al.2008-PNAS-homage%20to%20Linnaeus.pdf.
- ^ Carl Linnaeus, Systema naturae (1735; facsimile of the first edition), trans. M. S. J. Engel-Ledeboer and H. Engel (Nieuwkoop, Netherlands: B. de Graaf, 1964), 30. via [1]
- ^ Jan Bondeson (1999). "Spontaneous generation". The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History. Cornell University Press. pp. 193–249. ISBN 9780801436093. http://books.google.com/books?id=zsQAc_QlB5cC&pg=PA212.
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=qrBZAAAAMAAJ&ots=rg0RraAwPt&pg=PA168
- ^ Gunnar Broberg (2008). "The Dragonslayer". Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek 29 (1): 29–43. http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/tvs/vol29/nr01/art03.
- ^ http://info.lib.uh.edu/sca/digital/beast/pages.html?id=158
- ^ http://info.lib.uh.edu/sca/digital/beast/pages.html?id=159
- ^ Systema Naturae 2nd Edition (1740)