question: How exactly do scientific names for animals work?
comment: When you discover a new animal, you get to pick the scientific name. This name is in the Binomial Nomenclature, in Latin. There are rules, of course, and not just to make sure the names are unique. For animals, the [International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN)]( URL_0 ) is the rule book.
passages: Sometimes a genus name or specific descriptor is simply the Latin or Greek name for the animal (e.g. "Canis" is Latin for dog). These words may not be included in the table below if they only occur for one or two taxa. Instead, the words listed below are the common adjectives and other modifiers that repeatedly occur in the scientific names of many organisms (in more than one genus).
   In some cases, the same genus-group or species-group name was published in the same year by the same author. In these cases it is useful to cite the page where the name was established.
  
  There are cases where two homonyms were established by the same author in the same year on the same page:
   BULLET::::- Example: The scientific name for humans is "Homo sapiens", which is the species name, consisting of two names: "Homo" is the "generic name" (the name of the genus) and "sapiens" is the "specific name".
  
  Section::::The grammar of species names.
   BULLET::::- macro-: "Pronunciation": /mækroʊ/. "Origin": Ancient Greek μακρός ("makrós"). "Meaning": (correctly) long; (usually) large.
   This is the principle that the correct formal scientific name for an animal taxon, the "valid name", correct to use, is the oldest available name that applies to it.
  
  It is the most important principle—the fundamental guiding precept that preserves zoological nomenclature stability. It was first formulated in 1842 by a committee appointed by the British Association to consider the rules of zoological nomenclature. Hugh Edwin Strickland wrote the committee's report.
  
  Example:
  
  There are approximately 2-3 million cases of this kind for which this principle is applied in zoology.
  
  Section::::Principles.:Principle of coordination.
   In regulating the names of animals it holds by six central principles, which were first set out (as principles) in the third edition of the code (1985):
  
  Section::::Principles.:Principle of binominal nomenclature.
  
  This is the principle that the scientific name of a species, and not of a taxon at any other rank, is a combination of two names; the use of a trinomen for the name of a subspecies and of uninominal names for taxa above the species group is in accord with this principle.
   Section::::History of discovery.:Naming of related species.
   BULLET::::- Proper nouns which are names of people and places are often used in the genitive case. For example, the name of the coelacanth, "Latimeria chalumnae" which means "Latimeria of Chalumna", is a reference to the area near the mouth of the Chalumna River in the Indian Ocean, where the coelacanth was first found, i.e. its type locality.
  
  BULLET::::- An adjective which must agree in case and gender with the genus: "Felis silvestris" ("the forest cat")
  
  Section::::Differences from botany.
   Binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomial name (which may be shortened to just "binomial"), a binomen, name or a scientific name; more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name – the "generic name" – identifies the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part – the specific name or specific epithet – identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong to the genus "Homo" and within this genus to the species "Homo sapiens". "Tyrannosaurus rex" is probably the most widely known binomial. The "formal" introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus, effectively beginning with his work "Species Plantarum" in 1753. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1622, had introduced in his book "Pinax theatri botanici" (English, "Illustrated exposition of plants") many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus.
   Grammatically, a binomen (and a trinomen, also) must be treated as if it were a Latin phrase, no matter which language the words were originally taken from. (This gives some justification to the popular usage of the phrase "Latin name" instead of the more correct phrase "scientific name".) Grammatically (using Latin grammar), the specific name must adhere to certain conventions. The specific name can be formed as:
   The first part of the name, which identifies the genus, must be a word which can be treated as a Latin singular noun in the nominative case. It must be unique within each kingdom, but can be repeated between kingdoms. Thus "Huia recurvata" is an extinct species of plant, found as fossils in Yunnan, China, whereas "Huia masonii" is a species of frog found in Java, Indonesia.
  
  The second part of the name, which identifies the species within the genus, is also treated grammatically as a Latin word. It can have one of a number of forms:
   Species names have been chosen on many different bases. Most common is a naming for the species' external appearance, its origin, or the species name is a dedication for a certain person. Examples would include a bat species named for the two stripes on its back ("Saccopteryx bilineata"), a frog named for its Bolivian origin ("Phyllomedusa boliviana"), and an ant species dedicated to the actor Harrison Ford ("Pheidole harrisonfordi"). A scientific name in honor of a person or persons is a known as a taxonomic patronym or patronymic.
   List of tautonyms
  
  The following is a list of tautonyms: zoological names of species consisting of two identical words (the generic name and the specific name have the same spelling). Such names are allowed in zoology, but not in botany, where the two parts of the name of a species must differ (though differences as small as one letter are permitted, as in the jujube ("Ziziphus zizyphus")). 
  
  Section::::Mammals.
  
  BULLET::::- "Alces alces" — Eurasian elk, moose
  
  BULLET::::- "Axis axis" — chital
  
  BULLET::::- "Bison bison" — American bison
  
  BULLET::::- "Capreolus capreolus" — European roe, roe deer
  
  BULLET::::- "Caracal caracal" — caracal
   BULLET::::- Pecora: "Camelus" (camels), "Moschus" (musk deer), "Cervus" (deer & giraffes), "Capra" (goats & antelope), "Ovis" (sheep) & "Bos" (cattle)
  
  BULLET::::- Belluae: "Equus" (horses) & "Hippopotamus" (hippopotamuses)
  
  BULLET::::- Cete: "Monodon" (narwhals), "Balaena" (rorquals), "Physeter" (sperm whales) & "Delphinus" (dolphins & porpoises)
  
  Section::::Animals.:Aves.
   In scientific works, the authority for a binomial name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned, and the date of publication may be specified.
  
  BULLET::::- In zoology
  
  BULLET::::- ""Patella vulgata" Linnaeus, 1758". The name "Linnaeus" tells the reader who it was that first published a description and name for this species of limpet; 1758 is the date of the publication in which the original description can be found (in this case the 10th edition of the book "Systema Naturae").
   Domain; kingdom; phylum; class; order; family; genus; species. The scientific name of an organism is generated from its genus and species. For example, humans are listed as "Homo sapiens". "Homo" is the genus, and "sapiens" the specific epithet, both of them combined make up the species name. When writing the scientific name of an organism, it is proper to capitalize the first letter in the genus and put all of the specific epithet in lowercase. Additionally, the entire term may be italicized or underlined.
   Species names consist of a genus part and a species part to create a binomial name. Species names often also include a reference to the original publication of the name by including the author and sometimes the year of publication of the name. As an example, the sperm whale, "Physeter catodon", was first described by Linnaeus in the 10th edition "Systema Naturae" published in 1758. Thus, the name may also be referenced as "Physeter catodon" Linnaeus 1758. That name was also used by Harmer in 1928 to refer to the species in the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London and of course, it has appeared in numerous other publications since then. Taxonomic catalogues, such as "Catalog of Living Whales" by Philip Hershkovitz, may reference this usage with a Genus+species+authorship convention that may appear to indicate a new species (a homonym) when in fact it is referencing a particular usage of a species name (a chresonym). Hershkovitz, for example refers to "Physeter catodon" Harmer 1928, which can cause confusion as this name+author combination really refers to the same name that Linnaeus first published in 1758.
   BULLET::::- Hyphens are minimized, but for compound group names, hyphens are used only to connect two names that are themselves bird species or families, e.g., "Eagle-Owl", "Wren-Babbler", or when the combined name would be difficult to read, e.g., "Silky-flycatcher"
   As with scientific names at other ranks, in all groups other than viruses, names of genera may be cited with their authorities, typically in the form "author, year" in zoology, and "standard abbreviated author name" in botany. Thus in the examples above, the genus "Canis" would be cited in full as ""Canis" Linnaeus, 1758" (zoological usage), while "Hibiscus", also first established by Linnaeus but in 1753, is simply ""Hibiscus" L." (botanical usage).
  
  Section::::Use.:The type concept.
   Many such words, such as "thermometer", "dinosaur", "rhinoceros", and "rhododendron", are thoroughly incorporated into the English lexicon and are the ordinary words for their referents. Some are prone to colloquial shortening; "rhinoceros" often becomes "rhino". The binomial nomenclature of taxonomy and biology is a major source for these items of vocabulary; for many unfamiliar species that lack a common English name, the name of the genus becomes the English word for that life form.
   In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to "kind" (genus) and "particular kind" (species). When made up of two words (a binomial) the name usually consists of a noun (like "salt", "dog" or "star") and an adjectival second word that helps describe the first, and therefore makes the name, as a whole, more "specific", for example, "lap dog", "sea salt", or "film star". The meaning of the noun used for a common name may have been lost or forgotten ("whelk", "elm", "lion", "shark", "pig") but when the common name is extended to two or more words much more is conveyed about the organism's use, appearance or other special properties ("sting ray", "poison apple", "giant stinking hogweed", "hammerhead shark"). These noun-adjective binomials are just like our own names with a family or surname like "Simpson" and another adjectival Christian or forename name that specifies which Simpson, say "Homer Simpson". It seems reasonable to assume that the form of scientific names we call binomial nomenclature is derived from this simple and practical way of constructing common names – but with the use of Latin as a universal language.
   BULLET::::- Other sources. Some binominal names have been constructed from anagrams or other re-orderings of existing names. Thus the name of the genus "Muilla" is derived by reversing the name "Allium". Names may also be derived from jokes or puns. For example, Ratcliffe described a number of species of rhinoceros beetle, including "Cyclocephala nodanotherwon".
   Several nomenclators have been created in biology. They usually list the names of genera and sometimes species together with the origins (sources) of these names. Sometimes they also include additional information, such as the distribution.
  
  For instance, an entry in the "Nomenclator zoologicus" looks like this:
  
  BULLET::::- "Abronia" Gray 1838, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1 (5), 389. Rept.
   BULLET::::- "combinatio nova" ("comb. nov.") : new combination; when a taxon has been given a new name, preserving one of the previous components.
  
  BULLET::::- "status novus" (abbr. "stat. nov.") : new status; when a taxon has been given a new rank.
  
  BULLET::::- homonym : names spelled identically, but, in some codes, names spelled similarly, as defined by the code.
  
  BULLET::::- senior homonym ("zoo.") : the first legitimate use of the name which generally takes priority.
  
  BULLET::::- junior homonym ("zoo."), later homonym ("bot.") : a later and generally illegitimate use, though in some circumstances the later name is allowed to stand.
   BULLET::::- (Animal) "Passer domesticus" (Linnaeus, 1758) – the original name given by Linnaeus was "Fringilla domestica"; unlike the "ICNafp", the "ICZN" does not require the name of the person who changed the genus to be given.
  
  Section::::Other ranks.
  