BTW what language is "hynobius" anyway?

[hynobius]

I was reading up the taxonomy thread by rodrigo? and got curious..

 

[Chinadog]

Hi, welcome to the site!
I think all scientific names are in Latin, I don't know what Hynobius actually means, though.

 

[FrogEyes]

The scientific names of animals follow Latin grammatical rules, in part, but are based upon words of any language [or none at all]. There are scientific names based on acronyms as well as nonsense words. For species names, Tylototriton shanjing is from "Chinese" [there are hundreds of "Chinese" languages, I know], Tylototriton broadoridgus is from English, Phelsuma antanosy is from Malagasy, Litoria oenicolen is from Greek, Tylototriton podichthys is Greek, derived from Lao and other Southeast Asian languages, etc ad nauseum. There are names from Hindi, Quechua, Japanese, Native American languages, Australian aboriginal, Maori, etc. A few are translations, such as podichthys [fish with feet, the Lao term for "newt"] and agricolae [belonging to a farmer, a Latin translation of the German word Bauer, after Aaron Bauer].

I don't know the origin or meaning of Hynobius, and it seems I might have to go back to the original source to find out [but older sources often didn't explain their choices of names]. Meanwhile, I've asked Nick Poyarkov to see if he knows.


Plants, viruses, fungi, and single-celled organisms follow different rules. Mostly, the rules are similar. Plant names are supposed to be Latin or Latinized proper nouns [might have changed since I last dealt with plant rules]. Fungi rules should be most similar to plants. No organism which is not a virus can use the word "virus" in the name, while viruses must contain the word. Currently, plants, animals, and fungi can actually share names. Arizona is both bacterium and snake, Dracaena is both lizard and tree, Salvadora is both plant and snake.

 

[FrogEyes]

Nick says "Hynos" is Greek, meaning "plough", and it's in reference to the pattern of the vomerine teeth.

 

[hynobius]

Hello, thank you

 

[hynobius]

Nice, Im glad i asked; thank you

 

[Bodcat]

Nick says "Hynos" is Greek, meaning "plough", and it's in reference to the pattern of the vomerine teeth.

I thought it`s Latin, but perhaps you are right!

 

[Piterboy]

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