Binomial nomenclature: Rules Examples Sample Questions and More

Binomial nomenclature is the binomial system of naming of a particular species. As multiple local names of a species creates a lot of difficulties and confusion to identify an organism globally, this scientific method was introduced to assign a single name to a species. There are generally two parts of a binomial name of a species. 

The first part is called the generic name or genus name. The genus is considered as the rank in the classification system which is generally above from the species level and below from the family level. And the other part is called the specific name which distinguishes the species within the genus and keeps it apart from the rest of the species. The binomial system of naming of a species is very important to integrate them across life sciences and give each species a particular identity. Taxonomists use this method of naming especially for the identification of a species of a particular organism. 

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Father of Taxonomy

The father of modern taxonomy is known as Carl Linnaeus and he is the person behind the modern system of naming organisms as binomial nomenclature. He was born on May 23, 1707 in Sweden and died on January 10, 1778. He completed his higher education from Uppsala University, Sweden, and then began to give lectures on botany in 1730. During the 1740s, he was sent throughout Sweden to classify plants and animals and till the 1760s he traveled to continue classifying plants, animals, and minerals and also started to write about them in several journals.

He has designed systems to differentiate species from each other and he has also written about thousands of species of plants and animals in his book Systema Naturae. He started giving binomial names to all the species he used to work on regularly to differentiate and track all his classifications and then this method was also being adopted by the scientific community. He was later awarded for his two-term modern naming system but his work was mostly inspired from two brothers named Gaspard Bauhin and Johann Bauhin. They had already used this method of binomial nomenclature almost 200 years ago and most of their generic names were later adopted by Carl Linnaeus. The abbreviation L. is used in both botany and zoology to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for a species name.

How does Binomial Nomenclature work ?

Through binomial nomenclature, taxonomists were able to identify all species of plants and animals and this method became very important and essential in the scientific community. The scientific name through this method became very helpful for all the taxonomists and scientists and as it helped them to evade inconsistency issues and it also gave them the idea of the genus from which the species belongs.

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is responsible for the proper framing of binomial names of a species and this code is being widely accepted by all the scientists. They give proper guidelines for the framing of the binomial name of a species and also determine what to do in case of name conflicts. The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICNafp) is responsible for the names of all plants including algae and fungi and it is also known as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria is the widely accepted code for the binomial naming of bacteria and viruses. 

All these systems are independent of each other and work according to their own ways. And because of this, there are some of the same generic names being used for both plant and animal species although both of them are completely different from each other and don't have anything in common. 

Rules of Binomial Nomenclature

There are some uniform sets of rules and principles for the binomial naming of all the organisms and these rules are being followed by all biologists and scientists throughout the world. They have come up with some international codes for the naming protocol which are being used for the naming of all organisms. These are the names of the international codes.

• International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) – Deals with the biological nomenclature for plants.
• International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) – Deals with the biological nomenclature of animals.

Here are the set of binomial nomenclature rules which are being used to write the scientific names of all organisms. 

1. As all the scientific names are usually Latin, hence they are all written in italics. 
2. There are two parts of the binomial names of all the species. The first part defines the genus while the other part defines the species. 
3. The name of the genus starts with a capital letter and the name of the species starts with a small letter.
4. The names are underlined if it is written by hand or italicized if typed. This is done to specify its Latin origin

Examples of Binomial Nomenclature

Here are some examples of binomial names and their common names. 

Elephant – Proboscidea elephantidae

Horse – Eqqus caballus

Human – Homo sapiens

Lemon – Citrus limonium

Maize – Zea mays

Onion – Allium cepa

Orange – Citrus aurantium

Apple – Pyrus maleus

Banana – Musa paradiscium

Camel – Camelus camelidae

Carrot – Daucas carota

Cat – Felis catus

Deer – Artiodactyl cervidae

Pig – Artiodactyla suidae

Pineapple – Ananus sativus

Potato – Solanium tuberosum

Rabbit – Leporidae cuniculas

Watermelon – Citrullus vulgaris

Wheat – Triticum aestivum

Read Also: Scientific Names of Animals and Plants

Things to Remember

• Binomial nomenclature is the scientific name of a species that is the same all over the world irrespective of country and language.
• Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of modern taxonomy.
• There are two parts of a scientific name, the first part is the genus while the other is the species. 
• ICBN deals with the naming of plant species and ICZN deals with the naming of animal species. 
• The abbreviation L. is used in the scientific names to give respect to the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus.