Scientific Names of Animals And Plants

Scientific Names of Animals And Plants: The Scientific Names of Animals And Plants in taxonomy are a two-part naming system composed of genus and species. A genus in the scientific name specifies the genus to which organisms belong whereas Species in the scientific name specifies the species to which that organism belongs. This binomial/Scientific nomenclature is a widely used, formal system of naming a species. So in this article, we will discuss the scientific names of animals and plants in more detail.

What is Scientific Nomenclature?

There are billions of plants and animals in the world that are known to us by their local names. These local names would vary from region to region, even within a country. Therefore, these local naming would create probable confusion among the scientist for reference. Hence in order to standardize the naming of living organisms such that a particular organism is known all over the world This process is called nomenclature. This formal method of naming living organisms so that such names have not been used for any other known organism is called as Scientific nomenclature. Also, it is referred to as Binomial nomenclature. 

For example, The scientific name of mango is Mangifera indica, so here Magnifera is a genus name and indica is the species name.

Who is the father of Scientific Nomenclature?

This method of formal naming living organisms was pioneered by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus and is followed all over the world. He published the concept of the binomial nomenclature in his book ‘Species Plantarum’ in 1753 and later mentioned it in Systema Naturae (1758). 

How to Write Scientific Names?

In order to ease the study, a number of scientists have established procedures to assign a scientific name to each known organism. The international code has been recognized by biologists all over the world in order to ensure the distinct identity of organisms all over the world, that is as follows:

• For plants, scientific names are based on agreed principles and criteria, which are detailed in International Code for Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). 
• For Animals, Scientific names based upon the principle of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) have evolved. 

Universal Rules of Nomenclature

The universal rules relating to nomenclature are- 

1. Biological names are generally in Latin and usually written in italics.
2. The first word in a biological name is the genus while the second component denotes the species name.
3. Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten should be underlined separately or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
4. The first word representing the genus starts with a capital letter while the species name starts with a small letter. It can be illustrated with the example of Mangifera indica. (Scientific name of Mango)

Scientific Names of Animals

Below is the list of scientific names of animals-

Scientific Names of Plants

Below is the list of scientific names of plants-