Genetics in Minutes by Tom Jackson

Author:Tom Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: SCI029000 SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics
Publisher: Quercus

Linnaean naming

Linnaeus took on a Latinized version of his own name because Latin was the lingua franca of European scientists at the time. Every great work was written in Latin to overcome the language barriers and allow knowledge to disseminate better. So it is little wonder that Linnaeus also chose Latin and Greek as the languages for giving official names to the organisms classified in his Systema Naturae. The tradition has stuck to this day because it removes all ambiguities.

Crucially, Linnaeus opted for a binomial system, giving every organism two names. So the animal known in English as a lion is Panthera leo – only the first name is capitalized, and both are italicized. Panthera is the generic name, while leo is the specific one. The generic name refers to the genus to which the lion belongs, shared with similar animals, such as Panthera tigris (the tiger), P. pardus (the leopard) and the other ‘big cats’. The specific name is there to delineate the lions from other big cats.

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