Simulation · Biology · Class 11

Writing a scientific name

From the lesson Binomial nomenclature in The Living World. Change the values and watch what happens.

The idea behind it

NCERT §1.1

Every scientific name has two parts: the generic name (the genus) and the specific epithet. Naming with two components is binomial nomenclature, introduced by Carolus Linnaeus and used by biologists all over the world.
In Mangifera indica, the scientific name of mango, Mangifera is the genus and indica is the specific epithet.
Scientific names are in Latin or are Latinised, whatever language the word first came from.
Printed names appear in italics. When written by hand, the two words are underlined separately, not with one continuous line.
The genus begins with a capital letter and the specific epithet begins with a small letter, as in Mangifera indica, never Mangifera Indica.
The name of the author who first described the species may follow the epithet in an abbreviated form, for example Mangifera indica Linn., which shows that Linnaeus first described it.
Other examples used in the chapter: Solanum tuberosum (potato), Panthera leo (lion) and Homo sapiens (human being).

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