The founder of modern taxonomy, Karl Linnaeus, who lived in the 18th century, first attributed whales to fish

The founder of modern taxonomy, Karl Linnaeus, who lived in the 18th century, first attributed whales to fish and only after a few years corrected his mistake. Explain how he could have come to a false conclusion and what could serve as evidence of the true taxonomy of cetaceans.

Nowadays, many people make this mistake. Whales are mammals. Due to the shape of the body and the aquatic habitat, many of the inhabitants of the waters are classified as fish. Dolphins are also not fish. There are not so many mammals in the aquatic environment. Because of this, Linay made a slight classification error. But the study of animals continues today. Many animals are now classified differently. It used to be that all turtles were cold-blooded until they discovered a warm-blooded species.