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Sea FAQ Why do scientists classify fish?
Why do scientists classify fish?
Since common or colloquial names of fish
vary from place to place (menhaden, for example, are known
by at least three different names, and striped bass
are called "stripers" in New England and "rockfish" in Chesapeake
Bay),investigators would have no way of differentiating among
species without a uniform naming system. The system used to
name the 20,000 odd fishes known to science is called "the
binomial system of nomenclature." It usually consists of a
scientific name in two parts, the generic and specific names,
or three parts if subspecies have been described.
The generic name generally applies to several
species showing basic characteristics while a specific (species)
name is based on a few characteristics applying to one species,
separate and distinct from all others. (Example: The generic
name Morone applies to white perch, white bass,
and striped bass; the species names for those three
fishes are Morone americanus, M. chrysops, and M. saxatilis.)
The words of the names are latinized regardless of the language or alphabet of the study and are frequently descriptive of a significant feature of the organism.
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