Why do biologists use scientific names and why are they so hard to say?
Biologists use a standardized system of classification called taxonomy. This ensures that a scientist in the United States can publish a paper about M. sexta (the tobacco hornworm) and a scientist in Norway will know exactly what organism the scientist in the U.S. is referring to. The modern taxonomic system was developed in the 18th century by Carolus Linnaeus a famous botanist. An organism’s scientific name has two parts: the first word represents the genus of the organism and the second word, the species. The origin of these words is usually Greek or Latin. A genus can be thought of as a group of very closely related species. The scientific name of the Monarch Butterfly is Dannaus plexippus, Dannaus is the genus and plexippus is the species.
