Tautonym…

I like the Latin names of different species. They are normally named with their genus then their species so humans are Homo sapiens (often abbreviated to H. sapiens). The genus is always capitalised and the whole name is in italics. I have always liked it when the genus and species are the same. I think this stems from when I was a young boy and into fishing. My fishing books were full of exotic sounding fish like Rutilus rutilus (the roach) or Tinca tinca (the tench.) These names are known as tautonyms because the name is repeated. In English a tautology is when you say the same thing twice e.g. “new innovation” or “frozen ice”. I am sure you can think of plenty of examples.

Bubo bubo is the Linnaean classification for the eagle owl – Europe’s largest owl. Linnaean classification is the system used for naming organisms that was established by Carl Linnaeus in his 1735 work “Systema Naturae”. Initially all living things were grouped into three kingdoms; Animals, Plants and Minerals. We now have different sets of kingdoms; Animals, Plants, Fungi, Bacteria & Protista. The first three are fairly self-explanatory but you may not know about protista (sometimes called protists or protozoa). Protista include all the single-celled animals that have a nucleus (eukaryotes) to separate them from bacteria, which do not have nuclei (prokaryotes) or other organelles. There are other systems and categories but I like to use five kingdoms.

Within each kingdom, organisms are subdivided into phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. The European eagle owl is of the genus Bubo and the species bubo – just like you are of the genus Homo and the species sapiens (if you aren’t Homo sapiens then please inform a responsible adult.) The full classification of the eagle owl is; Kingdom – Animal, Phylum – Chordate, Class – Bird, Order – Owl, Family – Strigidae (true owls), Genus – Bubo, Species – B. bubo. The genus name always has a capital letter but the species doesn’t; they are also both usually written in italics.

You will notice that I have had to cheat a little with the only plant on the list – the spice cumin’s Latin name is Cuminum cyminum. I have not been able to find any true plant tautonyms.

Questions…

1. Are you made from prokaryote or eukaryote cells?
2. What structures might you find in a plant cell that you would never find in an animal cell?
3. What are the five classes of chordates?
4. To which class of animals do humans belong?
5. What can you deduce about the behaviour of an Eagle Owl from the picture?