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What's in a name? Question 1

 

   Why do we need difficult scientific names
(won't common ones do) ?

 

 

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More than 4300 species of fishes occur in Australia alone, just a portion of the 35,000-40,000 living in waters around the world. Each and every one of these species needs a name so we can discuss it in relation to research, conservation and fisheries. The name is part of a universally accepted naming system.

This naming system has a single unique name for each species to avoid any doubt about which is being discussed. Although it might be possible to have 'common' or 'vernacular' names in such a system, we have to remember that such names might be used around the world and in many languages. A common name that may mean something to those living in one place, may mean nothing, or something entirely different, to someone in another part of the world. This is one of many reasons why widely distributed species frequently have many common names throughout their range. To solve this problem, the 'Linnaean System of Nomenclature', often called the 'scientific' naming system, was devised.