Have you ever wondered how the name of a scientific species is chosen? Or if there is some kind of rule to choose it? As you may have guessed, the answer is yes.
The obsession with ordering and classifying living beings comes from ancient times, and the classifications have been changing depending on the knowledge that was had at different times. Aristotle was the first to try to classify Nature, ordering living beings into two kingdoms, plant and animal, after observing 520 different species. However, and after multiple attempts, the classification proposed by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, the binomial nomenclature system , which hierarchically classifies living beings , is now accepted, so that each category includes the lower category in staggered order. . For all this, Linnaeus is considered the ‘father’ of taxonomy. That is, the science that is responsible for naming, describing and classifying living beings.
What does binomial system mean?
Let’s see a simple example to understand it: we humans belong to the Homo sapiens species, if we break down the hierarchical classification from highest to lowest, we belong to the
Animal Kingdom
Edge: Cordate
Class: Mammal
Order: Primates
Family: Hominids
Tribe: Hominini
Gender: Man
Species: Homo sapiens
The specific name consists of two Latin names ; the first is the name of the genus and the second is the specific epithet. The name of the species is the set of these two words and is written in italics or underlined ( Homo sapiens/ Homo sapiens ).
Like living organisms, fossils are also called by this binomial nomenclature. If we make an ordering of Tyrannosaurus rex we observe that the tyrannosaurus belongs to the Kingdom: Animal; Edge: Chordate; Class: Sauropsida; Order: Saurischia; Family: Tyrannosauridae; Genus: Tyrannosaurus; Species: Tyrannosaurus rex .
How many species are currently described?
In the more than 250 years since Linnaeus began classifying living things, approximately 1.2 million species have been identified and classified , and are cataloged in a central database. However, a new prediction method published by Mora and colleagues predicts that there are approximately 8.7 million species of eukaryotes (organisms made up of cells with nuclei) on Earth, of which approximately 2.2 million are marine. Surprisingly, their studies estimate that 86% of terrestrial species and 91% of marine species remain undiscovered. His predictions do not work for prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) although a conservative estimate assumes about 10,000 species that could be extended to several million.
A species is considered valid when it is published in a scientific journal that has been reviewed by scientific colleagues, and always in accordance with the international code that governs it, which will be the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature in the case of animals; the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in the case of plants, fungi and algae; the International Code of Prokaryote Nomenclature for bacteria and archaea; and the International Virus Nomenclature Code, for the latter.
In any case, the name of the species must always be in Latin or Greek and declined according to the Latin declension rules, so that scientists from different parts of the world understand each other when talking about them. But from there the imagination can take flight…
How is a species named?
The species name may be dedicated to a place, such as the site where the organism was discovered. Lavandula canariensis is a plant, a variety of lavender discovered in the Canary Islands.
But it can also be put in honor of a person, as is the case of the Cricetodon soriae fossil hamster that was dedicated to the Spanish paleontologist Dolores Soria.
Or it can be dedicated to anything else, as in the case of the North American beer moth, where its name is a play on words with the genus La and the species La Cerveza . The dinosaur Dracorex howartsia by the school where Harry Potter studied.
Or the parasitic wasp Microgaster godzilla , discovered in Japan and whose hunting behavior closely resembles Godzilla rising from water.
The five species dedicated to the Star Wars universe
Of course Star Wars fans have their dose of ‘freak’ guaranteed with more than 25 species dedicated to the saga, ranging from the names of the characters or ships, to the actors who played the movies. Some of the most striking and spectacular are the following:
Han solo is a trilobite fossil that lived 460 million years ago in southern China. It was described by Samuel T. Turvey in 2005. In the etymology of the name, it justifies that the genus is dedicated to a Chinese people called Han and the epithet that it is the only member of its genus (alone). However, Turvey later stated that his friends had challenged him to name a species after a Star Wars character.
Agathidium vaderi is a round, black, North American beetle discovered by researcher Kelly B. Miller and researcher Quentin Wheeler in 2005. According to its authors “This species is named after the fictional villain Darth Vader in the movie Star Wars , which shares with A. vaderi a broad, shiny, helmet-shaped head”.
Coptoborus leia is another beetle, an ambrosia beetle, which was described by Sarah M. Smith and Anthony I. Cognato in 2021 and is found in Ecuador and Suriname. Her name “represents Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia Organa is the heroine in the Star Wars IV-IX movies (1977-2019). The species is rounded and mushroom-shaped like the character’s bow.”
Begonia amidalae is a terrestrial plant of the Begonias genus, endemic to Borneo, which was discovered by Che-Wei Lin and collaborators in 2014. The authors describe that they “have ventured to choose as an epithet for their new species a beautiful character from Star Wars , Padmé Amidala, because the appearance of this new species, with dark green leaves adorned with silver spots, is reminiscent of the starry sky.
Finally, Tetramorium jedi is a species of current ant that lives in the northwest of the island of Madagascar and was described and published in 2012 by Francisco Hita García and Brian Fisher. The etymology of its name reads as follows: “This new species is named after the fictional peacekeepers, nobles, and sages from the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas.”
References:
Isaak, M. Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature. www.CuriousTaxonomy.net
Mora C. et al. 2011. How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean?PLOS Biology 9(8): e1001127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127
Oliver, A. & Gascó, F. (2018). Paleontology in 100 questions. Nowtilus.
