What does the scientific name of an organism consist of?

Answer 1

Loblolly pine

Longstraw pine

Indian pine

Answer 2

The "scientific name" is actually called Binomial nomenclature. Binomial refers to two names. The first part is the genus category and the second is the species identifier. For example, we are Homo sapiens, which comes from the genus Homo and the species, sapien.

Answer 3

The scientific name of an organism consists of the genus name and the scientific name. The genus name is capitalized, and the whole name is italicized. An example of a scientific name is Felis catus which is the scientific name of a domestic cat.

Answer 4

Binomial nomenclature is the system used for writing the scientific name of an organism. It employs the taxonomy, or evolutionary relation, of the organism, and denotes it in a short, effective way, so as to serve the dual purpose of creating a universal name that represents a specific organism, regardless of culture, language, and geographic location, and describes the organism's characteristics, based on its taxonomic classification.

An organism's evolutionary heritage is classified into a number of tiers, called its phylogenic, or taxonomic, tree, or ladder. Because taxonomy is still a relatively new concept and science, all of its mechanics and dynamics (workings) are not yet fully explored and determined. Many organisms' taxonomy evokes dispute among scientists, as classification is based on genetic and physical characteristics; genetic technology is not yet developed enough to give irrefutable results, and there isn't a quantifiable organization of physical characteristics, besides the basics (such as "four legs," "one head," "ninety-seven eyes," etc.). Here is a list of all the generally accepted tiers of taxonomic classification (keep in mind that they are not all used for every organism):

• Domain
• Superkingdom
• Kingdom
• Subkingdom
• Infrakingdom
• Superphylum/Superdivision
• Phylum/Division
• Subphylum/Subdivision
• Infraphylum/Infradivision
• Superclass
• Class
• Subclass
• Infraclass
• Superorder
• Order
• Suborder
• Infraorder
• Superfamily
• Family
• Subfamily
• Infrafamily
• Supergenus
• Genus
• Subgenus
• Infragenus
• Species
• Subspecies/Variety
• Breed/Subvariety

The standard notation for the scientific name of an organism is Binomial nomenclature, which uses the Genus and Species names of an organism. Such a notation is written as Genus species. However, some species have variations with distinct evolutionary differences, yet genetic identity as said species. This leads to the inclusion of Subspecies/Variety, and sometimes Breed/Subvariety, in the scientific name of an organism. This is written as Genus species subspecies "Breed." An example of this is the full scientific name of a Rottweiler. Rottweilers are a domestic dog breed, and domestic dogs are a subspecies of Canis lupus, the Gray Wolf, so a Rottweiler's full scientific name is written as Canis lupus familiaris "Rottweiler."

You may have noticed that in several instances, it appears that a tier of classification may have different names, such as Phylum/Division, and Breed/Subvariety. This is because plants and fungi are represented differently from other organisms. While animals use Phylum and Breed, plants use Division and Subvariety. (If you think that's confusing, or should be different, you could write a complaint to the International Council for Science, or even Carolus Linnaeus.)

Answer 5

Scientific (Latin) names are given to organisms because the names of animals are very different in different countries (as you could imagine), so to establish a specific name to every species, taxonomists created the system of Latin names we use today to avoid confusion when referring to organisms.

Answer 6

It depends on the organism, but the name for the current naming system is called Binomial Nomenclature.

Answer 7

An organism's scientific name tell us what genus it is, and the second word tells us something about the organism like how it looks, or who found it.

Answer 8

The scientific name of an organism both indicates exactly what organism is being referred to, and the evolutionary characteristics of that organism.

Answer 9

genus and species