X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Binomial nomenclature


Homer Alone

The scene freezes, during which Bart and Homer's scientific names are given as Brat'us Don'thaveacow'us and Homo Neanderthal'us respectively.

Intein

The first part of an intein name is based on the scientific name of the organism in which it is found, and the second part is based on the name of the corresponding gene or extein.

Mnesarchaea

About seven species are not yet described, and the group is under revision by Gibbs et al. (see also Gibbs, 1979; Dugdale, 1988).

Specific epithet

A specific epithet is the second part of a scientific name in Binomial nomenclature.


Amanita echinocephala

It was first described as Agaricus echinocephalus in 1835 by the Italian mycologist Carlo Vittadini, before being placed in Amanita by Lucien Quélet and hence receiving its current binomial name.

Animalcule

The word appears in the Major-General's Song, in which Major-General Stanley sings, "I know the scientific names of beings animalculous..."

Genitive case

Scientific names of living things sometimes contain genitives, as in the plant name Buddleja davidii, meaning "David's buddleia".

Sorbus latifolia

Meanwhile, the horticulturalist, George Loddiges, whom Loudon held in high regard, labelled his arboretum trees at Abney Park Cemetery in 1840, as Sorbus latifolia, the currently-accepted binomial.

Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer

He published in 1756 a work entitled Elenchus Vegetabilium and Animalium per Austriam inferiorem Observatorum, a flora and fauna of Lower Austria noted especially because it was one of the first works to adopt the binomial nomenclature of Carl von Linné (1707–1778).


see also

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Albert Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1835-1919), French zoologist, coined the binomial nomenclature name for the Chinese Monal pheasant, son of Isidore Saint-Hilaire