History of The Concept
The class as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a top-level genus (genus summum) was first introduced by the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in his classification of plants (it appeared in his 1694 Eléments de botanique).
Carolus Linnaeus, in his Systema Naturae (1735, 1st ed.). divided of all three of his kingdoms of Nature (minerals, plants, and animals) into classes. Only in the animal kingdom are Linnaeus's classes similar to the classes used today; his classes and orders of plants, were never intended to represent natural groups, but rather to provide a convenient "artificial key" according to his Systema Sexuale.
Since then the class was considered the highest level of the taxonomic hierarchy until the embranchements, now called Phyla (or divisions) were introduced in the nineteenth century.
Read more about this topic: Class (biology)
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