Question

Why are scientific names of living beings considered better than their common names?

Answer 1

Hint: Scientific name is the taxonomic name of an organism, it consists of genus and species. Binomial nomenclature has the rules as per which the living beings are named scientifically.

Complete Answer:
Let us know a little more about scientific names.The formal system of naming a living being with two terms i.e, genus and species is known as binomial nomenclature. Such a name is called a binomial name or scientific name. It is usually in latin or Greek.

Scientific names are considered better than common names because of the following reasons:
- It allows easy identification, helps to accurately identify individual species.
- Helps the world to communicate unambiguously about animal species.
- They are universal, do not change according to places.
- It shows an interspecific relationship between different species of the same genera.
- This system makes it easier to study different organisms.
- This system helps in studying the inter-relationship between different organisms.
- This system helps in understanding the organism's evolution.

Problems in using common names:
- They are indefinite.
- It changes according to geographic regions, languages and individual preferences.
- People will have to learn different names for the same living being, which is tiresome.

Additional information: The naming of an organism is done as per the rules under binomial nomenclature. The rules are,
- There are two names, the generic and specific epithet.
- The first letter of genus is always capital and the first letter of species is small.
- The genus and species are of latin origin and thus must be italicized when typed.
- When written using pen and paper, they must be written separately and underlined.

Note: A scientific name is unique to a particular organism unlike common name where there are several common names for the same organism. This system helps the environmentalist for developing new methods of plant and animal conservation.