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 even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans, the gharial and false gharial among 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 legendary being

A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters 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.

<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 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. These are the marine fish and the marine tetrapods. Vertebrates are a subphylum of chordates that have a vertebral column (backbone). The vertebral column provides the central support structure for an internal skeleton. The internal skeleton gives shape, support, and protection to the body and can provide a means of anchoring fins or limbs to the body. The vertebral column also serves to house and protect the spinal cord that lies within the column.

<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, calcified structure found in the mouths of many vertebrates

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 an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It currently contains a single species, X. calminechari, which is known from Late Maastrichtian phosphate deposits in the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco. Its closest known relative is believed to be the durophagous Carinodens.

<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.