List of commonly used taxonomic affixes

Last updated

This is a list of common affixes used when scientifically naming species, particularly extinct species for whom only their scientific names are used, along with their derivations.

Examples: Afrovenator (African hunter); Afropithecus (African ape); Afrotheria (African beasts)
Examples: Enterobacterales ("Order of Intestinal Bacteria"); Nitrosomonadiales ("Nitrogen fixing bacteria order"); Chromatiales ("Purple Sulfur Fixing Bacteria Order")

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crocodile</span> Family of large reptilian carnivores

Crocodiles or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term “crocodile” is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans, the gharial and false gharial as well as other, extinct, taxa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scale (zoology)</span> Small rigid plate that grows out of an animals skin

In zoology, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopterans, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration. Scales are quite common and have evolved multiple times through convergent evolution, with varying structure and function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster</span> Fearsome and/or grotesque fictional being

A monster is a type of imaginary creature found in fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear, often in humans. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts, spirits, zombies, or cannibals, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.

A variety of magical creatures are depicted in the fictional universe of Harry Potter, which is drawn from various types of media. Magical creatures appear in the Harry Potter novels and their film adaptations, in the Fantastic Beasts film series, in other books by J. K. Rowling, and on the website of the Wizarding World media franchise. In 2001, Rowling released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which serves as a guidebook to the creatures described in the fictional universe. Some of these creatures were invented by Rowling. Others are derived from sources such as Greek mythology, English and Celtic folklore, and the works of Roman historians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-predator adaptation</span> Defensive feature of prey for selective advantage

Anti-predator adaptations are mechanisms developed through evolution that assist prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators. Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle, namely by avoiding detection, warding off attack, fighting back, or escaping when caught.

<i>Edaphosaurus</i> Extinct genus of synapsids

Edaphosaurus is a genus of extinct edaphosaurid synapsids that lived in what is now North America and Europe around 303.4 to 272.5 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first described Edaphosaurus in 1882, naming it for the "dental pavement" on both the upper and lower jaws, from the Greek edaphos έδαφος and σαῦρος ("lizard").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiaolong</span> Dragon in Chinese mythology

Jiaolong or jiao is a dragon in Chinese mythology, often defined as a "scaled dragon"; it is hornless according to certain scholars and said to be aquatic or river-dwelling. It may have referred to a species of crocodile.

<i>Scipionyx</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Scipionyx was a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Pietraroja Formation of Italy, around 113 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine vertebrate</span> Marine animals with a vertebrate column

Marine vertebrates are vertebrates that live in marine environments, which include saltwater fish and marine tetrapods. As a subphylum of chordates, all vertebrates have evolved a vertebral column (backbone) based around the embryonic notochord, forming the core structural support of an internal skeleton, and also serves to enclose and protect the spinal cord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid beasts in folklore</span> Mythological creature combining body parts of more than one real species

Hybrid beasts are creatures composed of parts from different animals, including humans, appearing in the folklore of a variety of cultures as legendary creatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tooth</span> Hard structure of the mouth

A tooth is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tearing food, for defensive purposes, to intimidate other animals often including their own, or to carry prey or their young. The roots of teeth are covered by gums. Teeth are not made of bone, but rather of multiple tissues of varying density and hardness that originate from the outermost embryonic germ layer, the ectoderm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rochester Bestiary</span>

The Rochester Bestiary is a richly illuminated manuscript copy of a medieval bestiary, a book describing the appearance and habits of a large number of familiar and exotic animals, both real and legendary. The animals' characteristics are frequently allegorised, with the addition of a Christian moral.

<i>Xenodens</i> Extinct genus of lizards

Xenodens is a potentially dubious extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It contains a single species, X. calminechari, which is known from Late Maastrichtian phosphate deposits in the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco.

<i>Dracopristis</i> Extinct genus of ctenacanth

Dracopristis is an extinct genus of ctenacanth that lived during the Carboniferous period in North America, around 307 million years ago. The species was discovered in the Kinney Brick Quarry in New Mexico, US. Like many fossils from the site, the fossils of Dracopristis are very well-preserved. A single species is known, Dracopristis hoffmanorum, which is named in honor of Ralph and Jeanette Hoffman, the owners of the quarry. Prior to being scientific named, D. hoffmanorum was informally referred to as the "Godzilla shark".

<i>Confractosuchus</i> Extinct genus of eusuchian

Confractosuchus is a genus of extinct eusuchian crocodyliform from the Cretaceous Winton Formation of Australia. Described as a macro-generalist, Confractosuchus was found with the bones of a juvenile ornithopod dinosaur in its abdomen. It currently contains a single species, Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which literally means "broken dinosaur killer."

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.