The principles, conventions, and terms used to systematically classify biological information, entities, processes, but also subfields of biology.
See also taxonomy for the naming of species or higher taxa.
Questions tagged [nomenclature]
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Why isn't a virus "alive"?
The recent news about a new supermassive virus being discovered got me thinking about how we define viruses as non-living organisms whilst they are bigger than bacteria, and much more complex than we first gave them credit for.
What biological…
James
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What is the difference between orthologs, paralogs and homologs?
These three terms are often misused in the literature. Many researchers seem to treat them as synonyms. So, what is the definition of each of these terms and how do they differ from one another?
terdon
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What's the difference between male and female?
As long as we only look at humans the differences are clear: males have chromosomes XY, produce sperm and don't get pregnant. Females have chromosomes XX, produce egg cells and bear babies. But when you consider other species, things are more…
user15004
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Can 'human' become a genus due to space colonization?
I have read that during the Second World War, some mosquitoes got trapped in the London underground railway system. The mosquitoes never got out and eventually they became a new species by themselves.
I had a similar thought. In the next few…
PNS
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Why do both the mango and the bee have "Indica" in their binomial name?
In my textbook, it is written that the binomial name of mango is Mangifera indica and the binomial name of a bee is Apis indica. Now in the name the second part is the name of species. But mango and bee are not the same species. One is a tree and…
Asif Iqubal
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Where can I get a file/list of the common and scientific names of species?
I am searching for an un-encoded data file with common and scientific names for example of a few hundred species or tens of thousands, where I can search the common and scientific labels of organisms.
bandybabboon
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To which distinctions does the term "hymenoptera" refer?
Hymenoptera is an order of insects that includes bees, ants, and wasps. A quick search gives the following etymological analysis of the term hymenoptera.
hymen (membrane) + pteron (wing)
Does the term hymenoptera have a firm basis in biology and…
Daniel Standage
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Has the acronym DNA ever been widely understood to stand for deoxyribose nucleic acid?
I have a friend familiar with evolutionary biology who was recently bragging about how much he knows. I asked him what DNA stood for, and he answered it stood for 'deoxyribose nucleic acid'. When I claimed it stood for deoxyribonucleic acid, he…
MordantHubris
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When writing about past research should I use the species name they employed or the modern version?
I am currently writing a literature review in which I am talking about the old research on the subject. When this research was carried out the species I'm talking about were classed under a different genus (specifically, it used to be called Vibrio…
Jack Aidley
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What instances are there in which two species share the same binomial name?
Since binomials are required to be unique only within a kingdom, two species can share the same binomial name if they are in different kingdoms. I know of one instance of this, Orestias elegans: this name denotes a species of fish (kingdom Animalia)…
D Mellinger
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Dreadnoughtus: Why are new taxa named using Dog Latin?
Once upon a time, binomial nomenclature was expected to follow Latin rules: the genus had to be a noun and the species had to be an adjective that agreed with the genus according to Latin rules of adjectival agreement with the noun modified by it.…
tchrist
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What is the difference between a protein and a factor?
In terms of nomenclature/semantics, why are some proteins named proteins, and some named factors?
I've been revising on eukaryotic DNA, and I've come across some proteins that seem to serve roughly the same function, but are named differently. For…
ning
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Acknowledging differentiation of species, in historical times
This is at least partly an historical question, and I am not even remotely a biologist of any sort, so apologies beforehand if it's a little obscure.
I often wonder how many distinctions were made in pre-Renaissance times, between species of…
Engineer
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What's the name of the fibrous strands that hold the seeds in a pumpkin?
If you cut open a pumpkin, the seeds are suspended inside the pumpkin by some fibrous, slimey strands. You can see them in the middle of this sliced-open pumpkin:
I'm writing a post for the Cooking.SE blog, and am trying to find out the proper…
derobert
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What is a subspecies?
Within a species there may be subspecies that are named using trinomial nomenclautre. For example the Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos horribilis is a subspecies of the Brown Bear Ursus arctos.
The dictionary definitions of subspecies seldom expand…
James
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