The system of naming animals that was adopted by zoologists and detailed in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The present system is founded on the 10th edition of C. Linnaeus's Systema Naturae (1758) and has evolved through international agreements culminating in the Code adopted in 1985. The primary objective of the Code is to promote the stability of the names of taxa (groups of organisms) by providing rules concerning name usage and the activity of naming new taxa. The rules are binding for taxa ranked at certain levels and nonbinding on taxa ranked at other levels.