species-examples
Species Examples
Examples of common and scientific names of living things, which could be marked up with a "species" (or similar) microformat. Note use of matching pairs of examples, where possible.
- Note: the original name of the proposed microformat, "species", is likely to change, probably to "biota" or "taxon". The former has been retained here, to avoid having to make many repetitive and perhaps redundant edits
If you find a link which is not working, please replace it with a suitable alternative, rather than simply deleting it. Thank you.
Types of publishers
There are, perhaps, three types of publisher of taxonomic information (with all the usual overlaps and exceptions one finds when generalising so much!):
- Those which publish a full or partial hierarchy, like UBIO.
- Those which publish a binominal, or a binominal with a qualifier, like a subspecies, variety, breed, hybridisation - but still referring to a single type of living thing, with no higher- level taxonomy. e.g the West Midland Bird Club's county lists
- These which publish common (or "vernacular") names, but who would be interested in "aliasing" those to the scientific equivalent. e.g the West Midland Bird Club's news from Ladywalk
Interestingly, some sites (Wikipedia, for example) have pages which fall into each of the three categories!
AndyMabbett 12:05, 23 Oct 2006 (PDT)
Binominals
Birds
Black-tailed Godwit on West Midland Bird Club's Ladywalk reserve latest news page
<b class="bird">Black-tailed Godwit</b>
Limosa limosa West Midland Bird Club county lists
<th scope="col">Common Name</th><th scope="col">Scientific Name</th> [...] <th scope="row" class="bird">Black-tailed Godwit</th><td class="sci">Limosa limosa</td>
Eurasian Bittern Bitterns at LAdywalk
<b class="bird">Eurasian Bitterns</b>, (<i class="sci">Botaurus stellaris</i>)
Mammal
Wolf on International Wolf Center
Canis_lupus on Animal Diversity Web
Fish
Northern pike on Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Esox lucius on Pike & Zander
Insect
Death’s Head Hawkmoth on Animal Teachers
Acherontia atropos on UK Moths
Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) on Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre
Arachnid
Rose Trantula on Pet Care Forum
Araneus angulatus on Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre (this is a duplicate. BenWest 21:56, 21 Oct 2006 (PDT))
Plant
Bog Pimpernel on Map Reading's Wildflower Images
Anagallis tenella on BioImages
Persicaria campanulatum on rECOrd - The Biodiversity Information Centre for the Cheshire region
Galeopsis tetrahit s.s. West Midland Bird Club
<i class="sci">Galeopsis tetrahit <abbr lang="la" title="sensu stricto">s.s.</abbr></i> (<b class="plant">Common Hemp-nettle</b>)
Fungi
Amanita muscaria on California Fungi
- as Amanita muscaria (L. per Fr.) Hooker
- as Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata
Fly Agaric on Trees for Life
Rhodocollybia maculata (Albertini & Schweinitz: Fries) Singer on [1]
- also written as Rhodocollybia maculata (Albertini & Schweinitz ex Fries) Singer
- (This is where a post-Linnean author is given special rights (because his descriptions were comparatively complete - i.e. recognisable) so his interpretation of earlier names is taken as the sense meant by the original author. Think these used to be "apud" and are now "ex" although a colon has also been used. There are only a few sanctioning authors, the main one being Elias Fries.(Fr.) )
More than binominals
Authority
Pica pica Linnaeus, (1758) on Wikipedia: European Magpie
- (i.e. named by Linnaeus in 1758)
Unspecified species
Podiceps sp. on Bird Life
<i>Podiceps</i> sp.
Psyllid plant hopper on Ramblings of a Naturalist blog
Sub-species
Animal
Larus glaucoides kumlieni on BirdGuides
Kumlien's Gull on Birds Ireland
Plant
Pisum sativum L. subsp. sativum on [2] (also has other examples; note lack of required italics)
<b>Pisum sativum</b> L. subsp. <b>sativum</b>
Cultivars (plant)
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Aureomarginata' on Wikipedia: Cultivar
<dd><i>Chamaecyparis lawsoniana</i> 'Aureomarginata'</dd>
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Golden Wonder' on plantago.nl
Cultivar groups (plant)
Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group on Wikipedia: Cultivar
Trade names (plant)
Rosa Peace on Wikipedia: Cultivar
- ("Peace" is a trade designation or "selling name" for the cultivar R. 'Madame A. Meilland' and should therefore be printed in a different typeface from the rest of the name, without any quote marks)
Sunflower 'Giant Single' on Johnsons Seeds
Sunflower 'Infrared' F1 on Johnsons Seeds
- (Note "F1" cross designation)
Variety (plant)
Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon on Dave's Garden
Sub-variety (plant)
Betula ermani var. genuina subvar. brevidentata on National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens, Gloucestershire Group (plus many other examples)
Form (plant)
Acanthocalycium spiniflorum f. klimpelianum on Wikipedia: form (botany)
- aka Acanthocalycium spiniflorum forma klimpelianum
Sense (plant)
Ranunculus aquatilis s.l. and R. aquatilis s.s; on Blithfield Reservoir: Survey of Flowering Plants... (see also footnotes on that page)
Cross (plant)
Digitalis x mertonensis on Hortax
- The hybrid name for all plants derived from the cross between D. purpurea and D. grandiflora. The "x" indicates the hybrid status.
× Fatshedera lizei on Scientific Plant Names, Oregon State Univ., Landscape Plants
Strain (bacteria)
Escherichia coli O157:H7 on FDA.gov
E.Coli on BBC news
Misc
Superseded names
Tringa bartramia superseded by Bartramia longicauda on West Midland Bird Club's Upland Sandpiper article
GUID
NBN Taxon Key for European Otter, Lutra lutra, on NBN Species Dictionary: NBNSYS0000005133
LSID (Life Science Indicator) for Popillia japonica on uBio: urn:lsid:ubio.org:namebank:3377001
Wikipedia
Black-tailed Godwit on Wikipedia: Black-tailed Godwit
Wikipedia uses several sets of markup, e.g. (in-line styles and links, plus some other markup, removed, for clarity):
<p>The <b>Black-tailed Godwit</b>, <i>Limosa limosa</i>
Linking
Wikipedia uses the standard convention of having species italicised. Internal links to species may be to the common name or scientific name depending on which is used as the article's title (usually common for animals, scientific for plants, although there are exceptions). Links to scientific names work regardless:
''[[Limosa limosa]]''
Link to common name:
[[Black-tailed Godwit]]
Link to common name, but displaying scientific name:
''[[Black-tailed Godwit|Limosa limosa]]''
These types of links are not used in the Black-tailed Godwit article itself, but in others related to it. e.g. British avifauna
Taxobox
Wiki markup for the taxobox (taxonomy infobox) on the English Wikipedia, as used on the Black-tailed Godwit article, with irrelevant fields removed:
{{Taxobox | name = Black-tailed Godwit | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]] | classis = [[bird|Aves]] | ordo = [[Charadriiformes]] | familia = [[Scolopacidae]] | genus = ''[[Godwit|Limosa]]'' | species = '''''L. limosa''''' | binomial = ''Limosa limosa'' | binomial_authority = ([[Carolus Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1758) }}
Above is vaguely displayed in an HTML table as (with formatting and links removed):
<tr> <td>Kingdom:</td> <td>Animalia</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Phylum:</td> <td>Chordata</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Class:</td> <td>Aves</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Order:</td> <td>Charadriiformes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Family:</td> <td>Scolopacidae</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Genus:</td> <td>Limosa</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Species:</td> <td>L. limosa</td> </tr> <tr> <th>binominal name</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Limosa limosa</i> <td>(Linnaeus, 1758)</td> </tr>
Also allows for other levels of taxonomy (e.g. genus or subspecies), and synonyms.
Quantitative evidence
For evidence of quantitative, rather than qualitative, use of species' and other taxonomic names, see [3] and [4]. Furthermore:
- Wikipedia:
- All species articles, e.g. Little Ringed Plover (see above)
- All genera articles, e.g. Charadrius (Plover) (e.g 200 pages, for birds alone)
- All higher classes, e.g. Charadriidae
- All regional lists, e.g. List of British birds
- All dedicatees, e.g. Alexander Wilson
- All authorities, e.g. Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
- All images of living things, e.g. Charadrius dubius 4 (Marek Szczepanek).jpg
- Many reserves, lakes, and other places of interest, e.g. Belvide
- Many biological authors and illustrators, e.g. John Audubon; Gilbert White
- Random articles on other topics, e.g. Balancing lake}
- Wines. E/g/ Cabernet Sauvignon
- All the above, again, for each alternative language e.g. Welsh; French; Chinese
- Wikimedia Commons
- All species indexes, e.g. Charadrius dubius
- Each individual image, e.g. Charadrius dubius 1 (Marek Szczepanek).jpg
- Each family list Charadriidae
- Wiktionary
- All species articles, e.g. American Golden Plover
- All family articles, e.g. Plover
- Many of the above, in other langauges e.g. Italian; Russian
- Wikispecies
- Every speices, e.g. Charadrius dubius
- Every genus, e.g. Charadrius
- Every sub-family, e.g. Charadriinae
- Every family, e.g. Charadriidae
- and so on, for every other rank
- Every image (e.g. Charadrius hiaticula He.jpg
- Wikibooks
- Google
- Google finds about 37,600,000 for "E coli".
- Google finds about 14,200,000 for "Homo sapiens"
- Google finds about 1,260,000 for ""Homo erectus"
- Google finds about 1,380,000 for "Clostridium difficile".
- Google finds about 841,000 for "Passer domesticus".
- Google finds about 602,000 for "Acer palmatum"
- At the time of writing, every single one of the first 20 Google results for "Noctule Bat" also includes the scientific name Nyctalus noctula.
- ARKive - 2000 species ("It is ARKive's current aim to compile audio-visual records, where such media exists, for the 15,000-plus species currently threatened with extinction, according to the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.")
- Royal Horticultural Society - RHS Plant Finder - 70,000 plants
- List of Prokaryotic Names (formerly List of Bacterial Names) - 2,032 *files*; 10,268 published names (to 2006-09-07)
- UK National Biodiversity Network Gateway - 20 million+ species records
- Species 2000 - 450,000 species
- BioImages - Virtual Fieldguide - 53,000 images depicting 4,600 species (see Wiki comments from site owner)
- Animal Diversity Web - "Thousands of species accounts [plus] descriptions of levels of organization above the species level, especially phyla, classes, and in some cases, orders and families. Hundreds of hyperlinked pages and images illustrate the traits and general biology of these groups"
- uBio
- NameBank is a repository of millions of recorded biological names and facts that link those names together.
- ClassificationBank stores multiple classifications and taxonomic concepts that are the result of expert opinions. It extends the functionality of NameBank.
- Over 500,000 common names are catalogued.
- BirdLife International - all birds of the world (~10,000)
- Bug Guide - all insects, spiders, and allies, of the USA and Canada (most with more than one page).
- Discover Life - "contains 306,553 species. The Polistes Foundation and its scientific partners plan to add high-quality identification guides, maps, images, and text for a million species by 2012. [...] Each month Discover Life serves approximately 3 million pages and images to 70,000 IP addresses"
- rECOrd (the Local Biological Records Centre serving the Cheshire region of England) - 1.6 million species records available online for the public to search and map
- Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding multiple sites, covering over 11,000 species (134,990 records; target 55,000+ species.
- Barcode of Life Data Systems "BOLD-ECS provides web developers and bioinformaticians the ability to build tools and workflows that can be integrated with the BOLD framework. We welcome the addition of new analytical modules."
- Fiji Arthropod Survey - (insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others) > 7,000 Families, Genera and Species
- Simile Dinosaur Timeline all dinosaurs genus - potential hCalendar mash-up.
- PhotoPic
- galleries for "bird" = 929
- galleries for "insect" = 194
- e.g. Foto Fountain
- galleries for "wildlife" = 458
- etc.
Planned sites
- Herbaria United (part of The website of the Botanical Collection Managers Group (BCMG), a specialist group of the Linnean Society of London) - "The UK has the world's largest and oldest collections of herbarium specimens held in trust by museums and universities. A new project is just getting underway to put all this online."
Notable websites
These high-profile websites use species names
- Amazon
- Encyclopaedia Britannica - all species, e.g.
- Flickr
- Tag for moth genera 'citheronia'
- Field Guide: Birds of the World 23,073 tagged photos, as at 2006-10-21
- The Guardian
- The call of the wildlife
- Sparrow joins 'raped' duck in Dutch museum (note improper capitalisation "passer domesticus")
- The Internet Movie Database
- London Zoo
- Microsoft
- MSN-Encarta - all species, e.g.
- MySpace
- Nature
- Nature Network, Boston
- The student and the squid N.B. site already supports rel-tag, hCard for user profiles and hCalendar for marking up events across the site.
- NASA
- SP-401 Skylab, Classroom in Space. Part II - Student Experiments ("The common Cross spider (Araneus diadematus)")
- New York Times
- Snopes (Urban Legends Reference Pages)
- United Kingdom Government
- United States of America Government
- ITIS, e.g. Passer Domesticus - "authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world"
- Yahoo Groups
- passerdomesticus species as group name!
- YouTube
Breaking news
In under two weeks, the BBC News website carried the following stories, all including the scientific names of species:
- BBC News: Stunning new orchids from Asia's rainforest - 2006-10-16
- BBC News: Winter home find cheers twitchers (winter home of the northern bald ibis found) - 2006-10-13
- BBC News: New mouse find is 'living fossil' - 2006-10-12
- BBC News: Giant camel fossil found in Syria - 2006-10-10
- BBC News: Sharks swim into political waters - 2006-10-06
- BBC News: 'Monster' fossil find in Arctic - 2006-10-05
Use in blogs
- Technorati search for "Passer domesticus" (367 found, as at 2006-09-25)
- Technorati search for "Acer palmatum" (682 found, as at 2006-09-25)
- Technorati search for "Homo sapiens" (40,932 found, as at 2006-09-25)
- Technorati search for "birding" (26,472 found, as at 2006-09-25)
- Ramblings of a Naturalist
- The Square Metre
- Windowbox Wildlife
- RXWildlife
- British Ornithologists' Union news
- FieldMarking - An experiment to see how people can collaborate to record wildlife observations in blogs.
And finally...
Gary Larson, in his book The Far Side Gallery (Warner Books, 1980, ISBN 0751502367) has a cartoon, showing two entomologists sitting down to eat dinner in a jungle. One says to the other "Hey! What's this Drosophila melanogaster doing in my soup?"
Contributors
- Andy Mabbett (proponent)
- Malcolm Storey (per e-mail)
- Charles Roper, Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre (proponent)
- Steve McWilliam, rECOrd - The Biodiversity Information System for the Cheshire region (proponent)
- Peter Halasz, Wikipedia Admin.
See also
- species
- examples
- quantitative evidence
- brainstorming (includes the straw man- or draft standard)