The Wyoming Biodiversity Minute
Episode 13: Scientific Names
Image: Carl Linnaeus also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the epithet "
Catamount, painter, panther, lion, and cougar are just a few of the common names for the Mountain Lion but scientists the world over call this member of the cat family Puma concolor. By rule no animal can have the same scientific name, this insures that scientists the world over are talking about the same animal regardless of their native language. Every described plant and animal is given a scientific name with two parts. A genus and a specific name. For Mountain Lions Puma is the genus and concolor is the specific name. Scientific names often described the physical appearance of the species. Concolor is Latin for a uniform color. Describing the uniform tawny color of this cat. Puma comes from the language of the Quechua people an indigenous people from the Andes of South America were the Mountain Lion can also be found. With your WyoBio Minute I am Brian Barber.
Catamount, painter, panther, lion, and cougar are just a few of the common names for the Mountain Lion but scientists the world over call this member of the cat family "Puma concolor".
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