Binomial Nomenclature || Rules of Binomial Nomenclature || Significance of Binomial Nomenclature ||

Binomial Nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is the method of giving scientific names to living organisms.
As the word “binomial” suggests, the scientific name of a species consists of two names: the first is genus name and the second one is the name of species.
Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778 AD) first introduced and adopted the system of binomial nomenclature.
His system spread rapidly and became popular. Many of his names are in use today.
Binomial Nomenclature
Some of the rules which are universally adopted while suggesting and documenting scientific names, are:
Scientific names are usually printed in italics, such as Homo sapiens. When handwritten they are underlined.
The first term (generic name) always begins with capital letter, while species name is never capitalized (even when derived from a proper name).
The scientific name is generally written in full when it is first used.
But when several species from the same genus are being listed, it may then be abbreviated by just using an initial for genus; for example Escherichia coli becomes E. coli.
Significance
In biological research, common names cause many problems. Different regions have different names for the same organism.
For example; common name of onion in Urdu is ‘Piyaz’ but in different regions of Pakistan it is also known as ‘ganda’ or ‘bassal’ or ‘vassal’.
In other countries, it has other sets of names. In science, it is known with a single name as Allium cepa.
In some cases, different organisms are called by the same common name. For example; the name ‘black bird’ is used for crow as well as for raven.
Significance
Common names have no scientific basis. For example; a fish is a vertebrate animal with fins and gills. But several common names of ‘silver fish’, ‘cray fish’, ‘jelly fish’, and ‘star fish’ do not fit the biologist’s definition of a fish.
To avoid all these confusions, organisms are given scientific names by using binomial nomenclature .
The value of this system is due to its widespread use and the stability of its names. In binomial nomenclature, every species can be unambiguously identified with just two words.
Same name can be used all over the world, in all languages, avoiding difficulties of translation.
Significance
Sometime organisms are named in honor of the research workers who described and classified them.
For example; the Orchid tree (Mountain-ebony) was named as Bauhinia variegata after the Swiss botanists Bauhin.
Bauhinia variegata is an ornamental tree found in southeast Asia.