Question

What is binomial system of nomenclature? Explain it with the help of an example.

Answer 1

Binomial nomenclature:

1. Binomial nomenclature is the biological system of naming the organisms in which the name is composed of two terms, where, the first term indicates the genus and the second term indicates the species of the organism.
2. The system of binomial nomenclature was introduced by Carl Linnaeus.

Binomial nomenclature rules:

1. All the scientific names of organisms are usually Latin and written in italics.
2. There exist two parts to a name. The first word identifies the genus and the second word identifies the species.
3. When the names are handwritten, they are underlined and when typed, then they are italicized.
4. The name of the genus starts with a capital letter and the name of the species starts with a small letter.

Example-

1. The scientific name of humans is presented as Homo sapiens. ‘Homo’ represents the genus and ‘sapiens’ represents a particular species.
2. The scientific name of the garden pea is presented as Pisum sativum. ‘Pisum’ represents the genus and ‘sativum’ represents a particular species or specific epithet.
3. The Indian bullfrog is scientifically written as Rana tigrina. ‘Rana’ is the name of the genus and ‘tigrina’ is the name of the specific species.