NOMENCLATURE
Why is there a need for the systematic naming of living organisms?
Activity 7.3:
Find out the names of the following animals and plants in as many languages as you can:
1. Tiger 2. Peacock 3. Ant
4. Neem 5. Lotus 6. Potato
As you might be able to appreciate, it would be difficult for people speaking or writing in different languages to know when they are talking about the same organism. This problem was resolved by agreeing upon a ‘scientific’ name for organisms in the same manner that chemical symbols and formulae for various substances are used the world over. The scientific name for an organism is thus unique and can be used to identify it anywhere in the world.
The system of scientific naming or nomenclature we use today was introduced by Carolus Linnaeus in the eighteenth century. The scientific name of an organism is the result of the process of classification which puts it along with the organisms it is most related to. But when we actually name the species, we do not list out the whole hierarchy of groups it belongs to. Instead, we limit ourselves to writing the name of the genus and species of that particular organism. World over, it has been agreed that both these names will be used in Latin forms.
Conventions for writing scientific names
Certain conventions are followed while writing the scientific names:
1. The name of the genus begins with a capital letter.
2. The name of the species begins with a small letter.
3. When printed, the scientific name is given in italics.
4. When written by hand, the genus name and the species name have to be underlined separately
Activity 7.4:
Find out the scientific names of any five common animals and plants. Do these names have anything in common with the names you normally use to identify them?
More to know
Carolus Linnaeus (Karlvon Linne) was born in Sweden and was a doctor by profession. He was interested in the study of plants. At the age of 22, he published his first paper on plants. While serving as a personal physician of a wealthy government official, he studied the diversity of plants in his employer’s garden. Later, he published 14 papers and also brought out the famous book Systema Naturae from which all fundamental taxonomical researches have taken off. His system of classification was a simple scheme for arranging plants so as to be able to identify them again.
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK