System created by Linnaeus still in use today. In formal Latin usage, the
genus is a noun and its first letter is always capitalized, while the species
is an adjective, which should agree in gender with the genus, and is written
in lower case. Many closely related species may share the same genus, but
within the same genus, each species must be unique. The same genus cannot
be used for any other animals that are not closely related. Dinosaurs are
known from only one or a very few fossil remains, often very poorly preserved.
Many times it is difficult to distinguish different dinosaur species, so
most people only use their genus.
Folk taxonomy is not only the historical root of modern biological
classification; it is also crucially important to modern research, often rely
on traditional knowledge when investigating native species. International
team of botanists coordinated by the New York Botanical Gardens is now surveying
species in the Brazilian state of Acre, a heavily forested region about the
size of Great Britain situated at the base of the Andes in the western Amazon.
So far, in over a decade of work, they have identified and collected more
than 3,000 types of species.
The scientists also learned that natives and other local people had already
named a majority of these species in their own languages. This is remarkable,
since their purpose has been to use the species in customary ways and to
maintain traditional cultural knowledge. Among Europeans, we can trace the
beginnings of organized, written taxonomies to ancient Greece, where the
philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle classified
species as herbs, shrubs, or trees as early as 300 BC. Theophrastus learned
of non-native species from Alexander the Great, who sent back specimens
collected during his expeditions to conquer much of the western world. During
the 16th and 17th centuries, another round of famous expeditions marked
the Age of Exploration.
During the 1700s, naturalists on major collecting trips to Africa, Asia,
and America returned to Europe with thousands of specimens. This large influx
of new species made systematizing process critical. Linnaeus himself discovered
over one hundred new species during his expedition to Lapland in 1732 including
the rare species. Organisms that have the same genus name have similar features.
For instance, all oak trees have the genus name Quercus. They all have acorns
and clusters of buds at the tip of the branch.
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