Scientific Names of Animals and Plants

Introduction to Binomial Nomenclature

Binomial nomenclature is a system of scientifically naming plants and organisms using Latin grammatical forms. The name assigned in this manner is called a scientific name, binomial name, binomen.

Each scientific name has two components, genus and species, also called descriptors/epithets. The first word refers to the genus to which the animal belongs and the second word to the species of the plant or animal. For example, ginger belongs to the genus Zingiber and within this genus to the species Zingiber officinale.

This system was formally introduced by Carl Linnaeus who attempted to name every known animal and plant. He published his work in various sections between 1735 and 1758. However, Gaspard Bauhin introduced the names of genera in his book Pinax theatri Botanici much earlier in 1623. Linnaeus adopted many of these names in his system.

In the modern system, there are certain rules that should be followed when writing scientific names of animals and plants. Genus should be capitalized while the species should be mentioned in lower case. Scientific names should be written in italics when mentioned in normal text. The names should be underlined if they are handwritten. The scientific name of Cucumber is Cucumis sativus Linnaeus.
The zoological names of animals and plants with common names are provided below.



Scientific Names of Animals



Scientific Names of Plants



Scientific Names of Extinct Organisms



Uses of Scientific Names

Scientific names were introduced to bring some clarity to the discussion of organisms. Without this system remembering the names will be extremely difficult. The system allows scientists to place a newly discovered animal or plant into related species or to create a new species if necessary. The system also helps scientists to discuss and eliminate misconceptions or errors in identifying the organism.

Scientific names are unique to each organism and related to that species that ever lived or is still living. It also applies to fossils to help identify and define the species. It helps scientists to have a discussion about the organism while examining and clarifying the attributes of each species.

In the absence of scientific names, each region might have a different common name of organisms making it complex to identify them. Binomial nomenclature eliminates the confusion by using a universal name. This helps scientists from one country to have a discussion with an expert from another country regarding an organism or plant using the scientific names.

Scientific names are easy to remember as they require only two specific words for each organism. The earlier classification system had multiple words making it difficult to memorize the names. It also simplifies the process of identifying the organisms.