Question

What is ‘binomial nomenclature'? Who proposed it? Write some certain conventions followed while writing the scientific names.

Answer 1

Hint: Every recognized species on earth is given a two-part scientific name that allows people throughout the world to communicate unambiguously about animal species.

Complete answer:
1. “Binomial nomenclature is the biological system of naming the organisms in which the name is composed of two terms, the first term is the 'generic name' that indicates the genus and the second term is the 'specific epithet' that indicates the species of the organism.”
All known living species on this planet including plants, animals, birds, and also some microbes have been specified with their own scientific names. For eg.,
- The scientific name of the tiger can be written as Panthera tigris. ‘Panthera’ represents the genus and ‘Tigris’ represents the species or specific epithet.
- The scientific name of humans can be written as Homo sapiens. ‘Homo’ represents the genus and ‘sapiens’ represents the species name.
2. The Binomial Nomenclature system was introduced by a Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. He is regarded as the founder of modern taxonomy.
3. The conventions and rules regarding the identification and nomenclature of living organisms are governed by-
- International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) – It deals with assigning the biological nomenclature for plants.
- International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) – It deals with assigning the biological nomenclature of animals.

The naming follows certain conventions.
- Each scientific name has two parts:
Generic name- specifies the genus name.
Specific epithet- specifies the species name.
- The scientific names of organisms are usually Latin. Hence, they are written in italics.
- Since the scientific names of the organisms have a Latin origin, so when the names are handwritten, they are underlined or italicized if typed.
- The name of the genus should always start with a capital letter and the name of the species should start with a small letter.

Note:
- Binomial nomenclature has great advantages along with some disadvantages too such as difficulty in learning Latin names, the names being unfamiliar to common people, and the names are long compared to the common names.
- International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) is now known as the 'International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants' (ICN).