Biogeography is the study of the distribution, both current and past, of individual species in specific environments. One of the first biogeographers was Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (born Carl von Linné, 1707–1778), who studied the distribution of plants. Biogeography specifically addresses the questions of evolution, extinction, and dispersal of organisms in specific ecosystems. (For more about biogeography and species, see the chapter “Heredity, Natural Selection, and Evolution.”)