New species!

[Rastaman]

Today at work we were talking about how down in cabo san lucas baja california they discovered a new type of fish, and so the main part of our conversation was on how do they give a new species its name? and does it differ from the scientific name?

Im trying to figure out also, for example:

a fischer's chameleon is called kinyongia fischeri. Why kinyongia? and why fischeri?

 

[Sang]

well to me that sounds like location, founders name, alot of times they will research any similarities to see if it fits into any other classifications.

 

[jojackson]

This may help explain naming of species

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_nomenclature

 

[Rastaman]

ok. so how about a panther. how would its name be? what is an ambilobes scientific name?

 

[THECHAMMAN]

there are some pretty crazy names out there, for instance: ba humbugi, dinohyus hollandi which means holland is a terrible pic, pison eu, polemistus chewbacca. like that

 

[Kent67]

Taxonomy is a way of classifying related organisms in a more eloquent way than referring to Kingdom 4, Phylum 9, Class 14, Order 1, Family 3, Genus 13, Species 12.5. When describing new species the names are generally either an homage to someone (Oustalet's (F. oustaleti), Von Hohnel's (T. hoehnelli), Jackson's) or descriptive in some way (F. pardalis has stripes like a big cat, T. bitaeniatus and F. lateralis have side-stripes, etc.) Newly described species must be peer-reviewed until wide-spread acceptance in the scientific community.

Here comes Chris A. with a much more clear explanation....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy

 

[Chris Anderson]

There are a set of formal rules that govern the proper way to name and describe new species that is put forward by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). When species descriptions are being written, however, and it comes time to formulate a species or genus name, there are a number of things that can be done. One common thing to do is name a species after a someone. Typically this is someone who has put in a lot of effort to the biology of those organisms, a friend or family of those describing the species, etc., If the species name ends in an "i", this typically indicates that the species was named after a male of that name. As an example, "fischeri" is named for a man named Fischer. If the species name ends in an "ae", it is named after a woman. As an example, "feae" is named for a woman named Fe. Another example of how species are named is after the location they come from. As an example, "uluguruensis" is named for the Uluguru Mountains for which the species originates. Another way species are named is as a description. As an example, "melanocephalum" means black head in latin. There are various other ways species names can be created. Kinyongia stems from the Swahili name for chameleon "Kinyonga".

Hope that helps,

Chris

 

[Kent67]

Here comes Chris A. with a much more clear explanation....

Classic! One minute later!

 

[Rastaman]

thank you guys that really helped me out alot. special thanks to chris a.

 

[Eltortu]

There are a set of formal rules that govern the proper way to name and describe new species that is put forward by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). When species descriptions are being written, however, and it comes time to formulate a species or genus name, there are a number of things that can be done. One common thing to do is name a species after a someone. Typically this is someone who has put in a lot of effort to the biology of those organisms, a friend or family of those describing the species, etc., If the species name ends in an "i", this typically indicates that the species was named after a male of that name. As an example, "fischeri" is named for a man named Fischer. If the species name ends in an "ae", it is named after a woman. As an example, "feae" is named for a woman named Fe. Another example of how species are named is after the location they come from. As an example, "uluguruensis" is named for the Uluguru Mountains for which the species originates. Another way species are named is as a description. As an example, "melanocephalum" means black head in latin. There are various other ways species names can be created. Kinyongia stems from the Swahili name for chameleon "Kinyonga".

Hope that helps,

Chris

Wow! You did your homework!...

 

[Brad Ramsey]

ok. so how about a panther. how would its name be? what is an ambilobes scientific name?

Same as a Nosy Be or an Ankaramy, or an ambanja

Furcifer pardalis.

-Brad

 

[Rastaman]

so they all fall under Furcifer pardalis, but its just their locale ( where they come from) that differentiates them right? but its the same species.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

so they all fall under Furcifer pardalis, but its just their locale ( where they come from) that differentiates them right? but its the same species.

Yup.
One species ... several locales.

-Brad

 

[hallenhe]

Yep - just like domestic dogs are Canis familiaris, whether Mexican hairless, Rhodesian ridgeback, sheltie, poodle or malamute. The morphological differences are obvious, but they're all interfertile (can produce fertile offspring) and are the same biological species.

 

[Chris Anderson]

...but they're all interfertile (can produce fertile offspring) and are the same biological species.

Unfortunately the biological species concept is really not a very good definition in many instances. There are too many instances where very different species can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Unfortunately there isn't a single species concept that is perfect 100% of the time which makes it very difficult to explain to people what definitively constitutes a species.

Chris

 

[hallenhe]

Unfortunately the biological species concept is really not a very good definition in many instances. There are too many instances where very different species can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Unfortunately there isn't a single species concept that is perfect 100% of the time which makes it very difficult to explain to people what definitively constitutes a species.

Chris

Agreed - which is why I didn't add on to my nice little example the fact that wolves, jackals and coyotes can also interbreed with domestic dogs to produce fertile offspring (though in that scenario, I admit I'm tempted to be more of a lumper and call everything subspecies of some urdog, e.g. C. latrans (though biogeography may not back me up on that one).
I personally use primarily the phylogenetic species concept, but that's not very useful in day-to-day life, or field identifications.