Do you know what is the difference between manioc, parsley, baroa, yellow carrot and white carrot? None! Just the name, said in different ways in different parts of Brazil. Something similar happens with the St. George sword, also known as Santa Barbara's sword, mother-in-law, lizard's tail, sansevia, ogun sword and oxossi sword: a lot of different names for the very same plant.

And this is not just the case with plants, no ... Look at the case of the black howler monkey: in some regions this species of primate is called the howler monkey. This whole variation of name happens because of the peculiarities of each region and can cause confusion if you do not understand biology nudity.

Black howler male and female

To remedy this problem, Swedish researcher Carl von Linné - also called Carlos Lineu and Carolus Linnaeus - decided to create a standard system of nomenclature of all species. It was then, in the mid-1700s, that the scientific classification - also called the binominal nomenclature - emerged, which aims to help researchers from different regions and eras always refer to the same species.

This nomenclature is made in two parts, always with the genus name coming first and with the initial capital letter, followed by the variation of the species in lower case, even if it was named after the person who discovered it. In the cases mentioned above, we have the Arracacia xanthorrhiza ( manioc ), the Sansevieria trifasciata (sword-of- saint -jorge) and the Alouatta caraya (black howler monkey). Another common way of looking at these names is by abbreviating the first term ( A. xanthorrhiza, for example).

The use of Latin for the terms is because it is a dead language, ie without the possibility of variation over time. So much so that some call this scheme “Latin name”, even though it is not quite so correct because some words used for new species are not necessarily derived from Latin.

Carl von Linné, the father of scientific nomenclature

Writing in italics is meant to highlight the term, but it is not a one-off rule: this can be done either by using underlined words (Arracacia xanthorrhiza) or bold words ( Arracacia xanthorrhiza ). Some scientific names appear in three parts because of the subspecies. The arctic wolf ( Canis lupus arctos ), for example, is a subspecies of the gray wolf ( Canis lupus ).

And although this scheme was proposed by Carl von Linné, it was not until 1901 that it became an international treaty. This did not, however, prevent equal species from gaining different scientific names. Linné christened the two-headed snake Amphisbaena alba, but it was rediscovered by other biologists who called it Amphisbaena rosea (in 1791), Amphisbaena pachyura (in 1822), Amphisbaena flavescens (in 1825) and Amphisbaena beniensis (in 1825). 1885).

In 1962, researchers noticed that all of these nomenclatures actually referred to the same species! When this happens, the oldest name is defaulted. That is, she is now “only” Amphisbaena alba .