5.06 Scientific Names

OK, folks. Are you just about ready? Make sure you get some pills for seasickness, put SPF 30 sunscreen on, and pick out some snacks.

Here we go! Well, would you look at that? Are those pink bananas or are they plantains? If we are going to identify organisms, you need to know the name of what you are asking for.

From the classification of any organism you can determine the scientific name. For this pink banana tree it would be:

Musa velutina

Notice the scientific names are the genus and species name from the classification.

Welcome to the S.S. Guppy, mates; get ready for a great day of fishing! The tides are set for peak on-shore fishing around 11 A.M. and off shore about 3 P.M. So, what do you want to fish for—girlies, mutton, pickerel? Tell you what—due to the tides, we will have to stick to reds, snook, and trout this morning. Then, we'll head out to deeper water for some dolphin, wahoo, and cobia later in the day. (Don't worry, we aren't fishing for "Flipper." Dolphin is another name for a kind of fish that restaurants like to call mahi-mahi.)

Sit down and read the Island Sport Fishing magazine to get a better grip on what we call things around here.

Scientific Names: What Do They Tell Us?

1. Print and read the following article, "Those Scientific Names."
2. Copy the following questions into a word processing document.
   • What did the captain name the fish that was caught?
   • After a fish was caught, the captain says that many fishermen call that type of fish a "grunt." Why does the author say this is confusing?
   • Why are Greek and Latin languages used in scientific naming?
   • Once an organism is named using scientific naming, it can not change. In the case of the hard-fighting cobia, why can this be confusing?
3. Use these questions to guide your reading.
4. Put your responses in your Travel Log.

Wow, now that is something I don't want to catch. By the way the common name for this tiger shark in Spanish is tiburón tigre and in Japanese it is called itachizame. The one name scientists call the tiger shark all around the world is Galeocerdo cuvier.

Let's Review

Add notes from the following information to your Travel Log.

• There is a special way scientist name living things.
• Scientific names contain two parts. Take that tiger shark above as an example.
  1. Organism genus name - Galeocerdo or Galeocerdo
  2. Organism species name - cuvier or cuvier
• A little grammar lesson: The genus name is always capitalized and the species name is not capitalized. Both names are then either underlined or put into italic print.

Are you ready to try the name game on your own? Match the following picture to its' scientific name. Let's see what you catch.

Scientific Names Activity

Move on to the Travel Log tab to complete this activity.