The discovery of Mycoplasma: in France in 1898; Nocard and Roux (with the collaboration of Borrel, Salimbeniet and Dujardin-Beaumetz) named the microbe as “virus péripneumonique” or “agent de la virulence péripneumonique”.

First paper to describe culture Le microbe de la péripneumonie. Ann Inst Pasteur. 1898; 12:240-62.

Mycoplasma have had many different names over the years; 1910: Asterococcus mycoides Borrel et al in Ann Inst Pasteur 24:167-179, 1911: Coccobacillus Mycoides peripneumoniae Martzinowski in Ann Inst Pasteur 25, 1923: MycromycesperipneumoniaeboviscontagiosaeFrosch in Archiv für wissenschafliche und praklischeTierheilkunde,

The first time “Mycoplasma” was used was in 1929: Mycoplasma peripneumoniae by Julien Nowak (UnivCracovie) Ann Inst Pasteur 43:1330-1352.

This name was not kept for long and in 1941: Sabin AB published the first comprehensive effort to classify the “microörganisms of the pleuropneumonia group“ (Bact. Rev 5:1.) in which Mycoplasma peripneumoniae is named Bovimyces pleuropneumoniae.

The most important paper concerning the classification of the pleuropneumonia-like organisms was by Edward and Freundt in 1954, J Gen Microbiol 14:197-207, it was the first paper organising the nomenclature from the order level (Mycoplasmatales) to Family Mycoplasmataceae the genus Mycoplasma to the species level with the type species listed as Mycoplasma mycoides.