Why Do Species Have Two Names, Like Homo sapiens?

Dear King Phillip Came Over For Green Soup. Do you remember learning that acronym in school?

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

According to the naming system that is used throughout the scientific community, living things are classified on 8 different levels. The broadest level is domain, of which there are three: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Eukarya includes everything from single-celled amoeba to 30-trillion-celled humans. Eukarya are characterized by their complex cells.

The narrowest level of classification is species, which describes one type of plant, animal, or other living organism. Examples of a species include humans (Homo sapiens), dogs (Canis familiaris), and Brassica oleracea.

All of the levels of classification are, in order:

Domain

Kingdom

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

Thanks to King Phillip mentioned above, I was able to write that without checking.

When talking about individual species, scientists find it helpful to refer to them using their two most specific classifications, genus and species. That way, they have an idea of the individual species, but also which greater category it falls into. An example of this binomial nomenclature (two-named naming - no, scientists are usually not very creative) is our species, Homo sapiens. Our genus, Homo, includes several extinct species of hominids that were similar to, but not exactly the same as, us. Our species, sapiens, refers only to the most intelligent (eh) and most recently-evolved hominids of the last 300,000 years.

Many species are named after where they were discovered, where they’re found, what they look like, or the scientists that discovered them.

What are some of your favorite species names?