76 ANIMAL CLASSIFICATION— TAXONOMY 



like in shape. Once you learn the meaning of the parts of the word, you 

 have a description of the animals to which the word refers. If you re- 

 member what the animals are like, you have a clue to the name of the 

 group in which they are found. Students find it easier to remember words 

 of this nature than words without any etymological relation to the animals 

 being studied. Many of these roots of words will not be new at all, be- 

 cause a rather large number of our English words are formed in the same 

 way by combinations of Greek and Latin roots. For instance, there is 

 the order of insects called the Homoptera. The first part of the word 

 comes from the Greek, homos, meaning "the same." This same root is 

 used in making a number of words which are already in common English 

 usage, such as homogeneous, homosexual, homonym, and homocentric. 



At first, the student may not be familiar with many of the roots used in 

 making up scientific names, but these should be learned as they are taken 

 up in the text, because these will be used in new combinations to form 

 other words to be studied later. If this is done, the learning of scientific 

 names becomes easier as the study progresses. Also, it is well to learn 

 to pronounce the words as they are learned because words are remembered 

 much easier if they are pronounced properly aloud. It is a very poor 

 policy for a student to attempt to learn scientific names by spelling alone. 



If an animal happens to be large and frequently seen, it is very likely 

 that it will have a common name as well as a scientific name. A person 

 untrained in biology could easily wonder why a scientific paper should use 

 the name, Turdus migratorius, when referring to the common American 

 robin which everyone knows. Common names can be very misleading, 

 however — the name robin was originally applied to a bird in England which 

 is quite different from the American robin, although the two have a super- 

 ficial resemblance. The name dolphin is applied to a warm-blooded 

 mammal of the whale family and is also the name of a cold-blooded fish. 

 In many other cases the common name is used to apply to a large group 

 of related animals without distinguishing between them. For instance, 

 the term "water dog" is applied indiscriminately to almost any kind of 

 salamander. Common names have a third disadvantage in that they often 

 imply a relationship that does not exist. Most people use the name 

 "horned toad" for a short-tailed, dry-skinned animal which is abundant 

 in Texas and some other southwestern states. This animal looks some- 

 what like a toad, but is actually a lizard. Such confusion of relationship 

 is eliminated by the use of scientific names in order that other scientists 

 may know exactly what is meant. This does not mean that biologists 

 go about "spouting" scientific names of common species of animals in 

 their everyday conversation — common names are more satisfactory — but in 

 scientific papers and reports where accuracy is necessary, the Latin names 



