Can You Say Tyrannosaurus Rex? by Carol Davit illustrated by Angela L. Chostner photography by Jim Rathert "Scientific names are too hard! I can’t even pronounce them!" You might think scientific names are hard to say, but if you like dinosaurs, I’ll bet you can say Tyrannosaurus rex! Scientific names of dinosaurs, other animals, plants, fungi and even bacteria are written in a form of Latin. They may look difficult, but the names often help describe what you are looking at or studying. Each scientific name has two words. Together they are called a "binomial," which means two names or words. This term also came from Latin. The first word, the genus, is usually a noun. The second, called the specific epithet, is usually an adjective. It tells something about the noun. Binomials are usually set in italic to set them apart from English words. For example, Eumeces laticeps is the binomial for the broad-headed skink, and Eumeces obsoletus is the binomial for the Great Plains skink. Eumeces in Latin means "skink"; The word laticeps comes from lati-, which means, broad, and -ceps, which means, head. The word obsoletus means, "to go out of use," and refers to the lack of stripes on the back of the Great Plains skink. Why do we need scientific names? What's wrong with common names? Common names work fine when you are talking to someone who knows what you are talking about. And, common names can teach us what a plant or animal looks or feels like, or how people have used the plants in the past. For example, leatherwood is the name of a shrub with twigs that are very flexible, like leather. Wild coffee is one of the common names of a plant with brown flowers and bright orange fruits. It was used by early pioneers as a coffee substitute. However, common names can sometimes be confusing. For example, there are four different plants in Missouri called "goat’s beard." By using the scientific names for these four plants, Tragopogon dubius, Tragopogon pratensis, Tragopogon porrifolius, and Aruncus dioicus, there is no mistaking the plant’s identity. Also, it is clear that the first three plants are pretty closely related. They are in the same genus, Tragopogon. Many plants grow throughout Missouri, so people living in the Ozarks might use one common name for a plant, while people in Kirksville may use another. The plant mentioned earlier, wild coffee, also goes by the names, "horse gentian" and "tinker’s weed." This plant isn’t related to coffee (the genus Coffea). It isn’t a gentian (in the genus Gentiana), and it isn’t a weed. Someone new to the plant could easily be confused. By using the plant’s scientific name Triosteum perfoliatum, scientists in Missouri, China or Denmark would all be using the same name for the same plant. They would all be able to know that this plant is related to other plants in the honeysuckle family. But I’m not a scientist! How will scientific names help me? Even if you aren’t a scientist, you can still learn a lot about nature from scientific names. They might tell you where a plant grows or what it looks like. They might even give you a clue to the sound of a frog’s call. For example, Rana clamitans is the scientific name for green frog. Rana means frog, and clamitans comes from clamito, which means "to cry loudly." This refers to the loud "sqweenk" the green frog makes when it is startled. Frogs, as you know, need to live near water at least part of their lives. That led to the name of flowers in the genus Ranunculus, which means "little frog." Many Ranunculus species live near water–just like frogs. Fraxinus quadrangualata is the scientific name for blue ash. Fraxinus is the original Latin name for "ash tree," while quadrangulata means "four-angled." It describes how the young twigs of this tree are square, not round. Even though all scientific names are written in a form of Latin, many of the roots of these names come from Greek and many other languages. For example, sunflowers are in the genus Helianthus. Heli is Greek for "sun," and anthus comes from the Greek word for "flower." Piranga rubra is the scientific name for summer tanager. Piranga is a common name for a bird used in Tupi, the language of the Tupi Indian tribe in South America. Some plants and animals are named after people. Adder’s tongue fern, Ophioglossum engelmannii, is named after George Engelmann, a botanist who lived in St. Louis in the 1800s. The cardinal, Richmondena cardinalis, is named for Charles Richmond, a bird expert who lived from 1868 to 1932. New species are discovered every year, even in Missouri, and each one has to have a scientific name. Perhaps you might help name a new species one day, or you might have one named after you! WHY ARE SCIENTIFIC NAMES WRITTEN IN LATIN ANYWAY? Some of the first people to write about plants and animals were Romans, nearly 2000 years ago! From that point through the 1800s, Latin, the language of the Romans, was considered "the language of learning" by people all over Europe. People on other continents learned Latin, too, so it became known around the world. In the 1700s, a Swedish man named Carl Linnaeus was interested in plants but was frustrated that there wasn’t an easy system of plant or animal names. At that time, people used phrases to describe plants and animals. So, Linnaeus shortened these descriptions to just two words, the binomial. This system began in 1753 for plants and 1758 for animals.

Click to Enlarge Tyrannosaurus rex is one scientific name that is familiar to everyone. Tyrannos- means "tyrant," -saurus means "lizard" and rex means "king". So, Tyrannosaurus rex means king of the dinosaurs!   Eumeces laticeps Eumeces obsoletus Click to Enlarge   Helianthus Richmondena cardinalis Click to Enlarge