Learn a scientific name
Welcome to our scientific name website. Scientificname.net is here to help you learn more about scientific names and how they are used. Every recognized species on earth is given a two-part scientific name and you can use this site to understand more about the scientific names of animals, plants and humans. The scientific name for every organism is comprised of a combination of two terms, the genus name and the species or epithet. Both of these terms are italicized and the genus name is also capitalized. As an example of a scientific name in action, the scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens. In this example of a scientific name, the genus name is Homo and the species is sapiens. These terms are unique and no other species can have this same name. Scientific names are designed to tell you something about an animal's relationships with other animals.
The scientific name for the tiger is Panthera tigris
The process of asigning a scientific name to a plant or animal is called taxonomy. Taxonomy is a hierarchical system for classifying and identifying organisms that was originally developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century. Linnaeus's taxonomy system dictactes the ordering of species into broad categories. There are seven major categories: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
Humans belong to genus Homo and species sapiens and therefore the scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens. Note that the first part of a scientific name, genus, begins with a capital letter, while the second with a small letter.
Every plant and animal species is given a two part scientific name that allows people all over the world to communicate unambiguously about plant and animal names. The two terms used when giving a scientific name to a species are the genus name and the species or epithet. The great thing about scientific names is that every plant and animal has a unique name that means people all over the world can talk about the exact same species but a common name can be vague and confusing.
Common names for a species are often confusing and may vary depending on which part of the world you are in. Some common names may refer to several different species. If someone talks about a whale for example how would you know which whale they were talking about? There are many different whales such as sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), killer whales (Orcinus orca) and grey whales (Eschrichtius robustus). A scientific name allows you to understand exactly which whale you are talking about. There are many more examples of confusing common names for animals and plants. Using a scientific name is often essential.