Perhaps the single greatest contribution Linnaeus made to science was his method of naming species. This method, called binomial nomenclature, gives each species a unique, two-word Latin name consisting of the genus name and the species name. An example is Homo sapiens, the two-word Latin name for humans. It literally means "wise human." This is a reference to our big brains.

Why is having two names so important? It is similar to people having a first and a last name. You may know several people with the first name Michael, but adding Michael's last name usually pins down exactly whom you mean. In the same way, having two names uniquely identifies a species.

What is binomial nomenclature?

Question

Nina Hale

Biology

13 July, 23:26

Perhaps the single greatest contribution Linnaeus made to science was his method of naming species. This method, called binomial nomenclature, gives each species a unique, two-word Latin name consisting of the genus name and the species name. An example is Homo sapiens, the two-word Latin name for humans. It literally means "wise human." This is a reference to our big brains.

Why is having two names so important? It is similar to people having a first and a last name. You may know several people with the first name Michael, but adding Michael's last name usually pins down exactly whom you mean. In the same way, having two names uniquely identifies a species.

What is binomial nomenclature?

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Allisson Chung · Answer 1

Binomial nomenclature is the naming system developed by Carolus Linnaeus. In this system, latin language was used because it is a dead language which cannot be spoken by people in the world. In binomial nomenclature, two names are used. One for genus and the second for specie. For example, Rana tigrina is the scientific name of frog. In this name rana is genus and tigrina is specie.