308 INTRODUCTION TO EVOLUTION 



A few conventions will be noticed in the binomial system. The names are 

 always in Latin or in Latinized form. While this practice strikes most 

 American college students as needlessly cumbersome, it insures uniformity 

 of naming in writings of biologists of all nationalities. Although Latin is no 

 longer regarded as the universal language of scholarship, knowledge of it 

 is sufficiently widespread in all nations to render its use in forming names 

 generally acceptable. With names agreed upon in this fashion, a biologist in 

 one country, even though he be writing in Russian or Chinese, can be sure 

 that biologists in other countries will know exactly what animal he is dis- 

 cussing. Such understanding would probably not ensue if the Russian biolo- 

 gist were to employ the Russian name of the animal. 



"Common" or vernacular names are notoriously variable even within 

 the confines of one continent and one language. Consider, for example, the 

 big American member of the cat family known to biologists as Felis con- 

 color. According to Seton (1929) that mammal is called in various parts 

 of America by the following "common" names: panther, puma, mountain 

 lion, painter, cougar, catamount, brown tiger, varmint, sneak-cat, red tiger, 

 silver lion, purple panther, deer-killer, Indian devil, mountain devil, moun- 

 tain demon, mountain screamer, king-cat. When we add to these the varied 

 names for the animal in the Central and South American languages and 

 dialects the confusion is truly appalling. We return to the simple appella- 

 tion, Felis concolor, with a distinct sense of relief. 



Another convention is that the scientific name of an animal is usually 

 italicized (indicated in handwriting or typing by an underline). By conven- 

 tion, also, the name of the genus begins with a capital letter, the name of 

 the species with a "small" (i.e., lower-case) letter. Frequently a name or 

 initial, not italicized, will follow the name of the species, thus: Canis fa- 

 miliaris L. This name or initial designates the name of the biologist who 

 conferred the name in the first place. Since Linnaeus himself gave names to 

 so many animals and plants, L. is sufficient to remind the reader that the 

 name derives from the founder of the system himself. 



Family 



We have seen that the dog, the coyote, and the jackal are all grouped to- 

 gether in the genus Canis because they are all so very doglike in structure 

 and characteristics. We are reminded again that classification is based on 

 similarities. There are other mammals which are somewhat doglike but not 

 sufficiently so to be included in genus Canis. For example, the foxes are 

 placed in genus Vulpes. The common red fox is Vulpes julva. 



