Editing Life (section)

=== Antiquity ===

{{main|Aristotle's biology}}

The first classification of organisms was made by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC), who grouped living things as either plants or animals, based mainly on their ability to move. He distinguished animals with blood from animals without blood, which can be compared with the concepts of [[vertebrate]]s and [[invertebrate]]s respectively, and divided the blooded animals into five groups: viviparous quadrupeds ([[mammal]]s), oviparous quadrupeds (reptiles and [[amphibian]]s), birds, fishes and [[Cetacea|whales]]. The bloodless animals were divided into five groups: [[cephalopod]]s, [[crustacean]]s, insects (which included the spiders, [[scorpion]]s, and [[centipede]]s), shelled animals (such as most [[mollusc]]s and [[echinoderm]]s), and "[[zoophyte]]s" (animals that resemble plants). This theory remained dominant for more than a thousand years.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/aristotle.html |title=Aristotle |publisher=University of California Museum of Paleontology |access-date=15 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120124920/http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/aristotle.html |archive-date=20 November 2016}}</ref>