The first periodic table was created by Dmitri Mendeleev, who arranged the known elements by increasing atomic mass. Mendeleev's groundbreaking work was instrumental in understanding the relationships between different elements and how they can be classified based on their properties. By organizing the elements in this manner, he was able to predict the existence and properties of elements that had not yet been discovered at the time.
Mendeleev's periodic table not only provided a systematic way to group elements but also revealed periodic trends in their properties, which further solidified his reputation as the father of the periodic table. His foresight in leaving gaps in the table for undiscovered elements demonstrated his understanding of the elements' atomic behaviors and paved the way for future developments in chemistry.
Other figures mentioned, like Linnaeus, Darwin, and Mendel, played significant roles in their respective fields, such as taxonomy, evolution, and genetics, but their work is not related to the development of the periodic table in chemistry. Mendeleev's contributions uniquely established the framework that would later be refined into the modern periodic table we use today.