Question

The scientific name of Elephant is Elephas maximus
a) Write the specific epithet of the Elephant.
b) Mention the rule of nomenclature which is in support of this conclusion.
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Answer 1

Answer:

(a) Specific epithet of elephas maximus is maximus

(b) Some following rules are there in nomenclature to ensure that a local spoken or written chemical name leaves no ambiguity concerning which chemical compound the name refers to are :-

• Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. they are latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin.
• the first word in a bio biological name represents the genus the second component denotes the specific epithet.
• both the word in biological name, when Handwritten, are are separately underlined, aur printed in italics to indicate the Latin origin.
• the first world denoting the genus starts with a capital letter while the specific epithet start with small letter it can be illustrated with the example of Mangifera indica.

Explanation:

This is known as binomial nomenclature in which name has two component with generic and the specific epithet and this system is given by Carolus Linnaeus ( father of taxonomy ) and Remember that " The second word in binomial nomenclature has been called "specific name" or "specific epithet" but it is not the name of species whereas Both words together are the species name.