Nomenclature – Class 11 | Chapter – 1 | Short Notes Series PDF

Nomenclature: After classification, organisms are subjected to a format of two-word naming system called binomial nomenclature. It consists of two components, i.e., generic name and specific epithet.

For example, in Mangifera indica, ‘Mangifera’ is the generic name and ‘indica’ is the specific name of mango. This system was proposed by C Linnaeus  (a Swedish Botanist) in (1753) in his book Species Plantarum.

Nomenclature

History of Binomial Nomenclature

  • The pioneer of binomial nomenclature was Casper Bauhin.
  • It was first used or made popular by Swedish botanical taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700s. And after that was used many other biologists.
  • That’s why he is also known as the father of taxonomy.
  • One of his popular books based on nomenclature was “Systema Naturae”.
  • He published scientific names of almost 6000 or more plants and 4000 or more animals.
  • Among the different editions of publications of Carl Linnaeus, scientific names in the publications of 1753 for plants (Species Plantarum) and 1758 for animals (Tenth edition of Systema Naturae) were considered valid.
  • Binomial Nomenclature was further developed and carried on by different scientists who worked on classification and evolution such as Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, Ernst Haeckel, and others.

Polynomial system of nomenclature is a type of naming system containing more than two words. Trinomial system is a component of polynomial system and contains three words. Third word represents the sub-species and first two-words remain the same as in binomial system.

Binomial Nomenclature Applications

  1. In biological studies, organisms are assigned with some distinguishable specific scientific names, and bionomical nomenclature is applied for it.
  2. It helps in the systematics scientific studies of different organisms.
  3. Based on specific characteristics, it can be used to provide scientific names to pre-existing or newly discovered organisms.
  4. Some of the scientific names can easily indicate the general identification or characteristics of any organism. Eg. Entamoeba coli where “Entamoeba” indicates it to be enteric amoeba and “coli” indicates its presence in the colon of the intestine.
  5. The common name of organisms may vary around different parts of the world based on their language but the scientific name remains the same which makes it easier for biologists around the world to recognize it.

JOIN OUR TELEGRAM CHANNELS
Biology Quiz & Notes Physics Quiz & Notes Chemistry Quiz & Notes

Follow on Facebook

By Team Learning Mantras