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The Art of Naming (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R581
Discovery Miles 5 810
You Save: R184
(24%)
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The Art of Naming (Hardcover)
Series: The MIT Press
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List price R765
Loot Price R581
Discovery Miles 5 810
You Save R184 (24%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
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From Tyrannosaurus rex to Heteropoda davidbowie: scientific naming
as a joyful and creative act. Tyrannosaurus rex. Homo sapiens.
Heteropoda davidbowie. Behind each act of scientific naming is a
story. In this entertaining and illuminating book, Michael Ohl
considers scientific naming as a joyful and creative act. There are
about 1.8 million discovered and named plant and animal species,
and millions more still to be discovered. Naming is the necessary
next step after discovery; it is through the naming of species that
we perceive and understand nature. Ohl explains the process, with
examples, anecdotes, and a wildly varied cast of characters. He
describes the rules for scientific naming; the vernacular isn't
adequate. These rules-in standard binomial nomenclature, the
generic name followed by specific name-go back to Linnaeus; but
they are open to idiosyncrasy and individual expression. A lizard
is designated Barbaturex morrisoni (in honor of the Doors' Jim
Morrison, the Lizard King); a member of the horsefly family Scaptia
beyonceae. Ohl, a specialist in "winged things that sting,"
confesses that among the many wasp species he has named is Ampulex
dementor, after the dementors in the Harry Potter novels.
Scientific names have also been deployed by scientists to insult
other scientists, to make political statements, and as expressions
of romantic love: "I shall name this beetle after my beloved wife."
The Art of Naming takes us on a surprising and fascinating journey,
in the footsteps of the discoverers of species and the authors of
names, into the nooks and crannies and drawers and cabinets of
museums, and through the natural world of named and not-yet-named
species.
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