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Sea Turtle Glossary

Please report errors to glossary@seaturtle.org.

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Scientific Name

The "scientific name" of an animal consists of two levels of its taxonomic classification, the "genus" and "species." Scientific names are in Latin. They are usually printed in italics, with the genus capitalized. The scientific name of the green sea turtle is "Chelonia (genus) mydas (species)." Sometimes a species is further subdivided into subspecies, and the subspecies name is added to the scientific name. Thus the East Pacific green turtles scientific name is "Chelonia mydas agassizii". Once the genus and species have been mentioned, they are usually abbreviated in subsequent occurrences (e.g. the green sea turtles scientific name would be written "C. mydas".)

WWW References:

• General Resources: Sea Turtles

Citations:

• Pritchard, P. C. H. 1996. Evolution, phylogeny and current status. - In: Lutz, P. L. and Musick, J. A. (eds.), The biology of sea turtles. CRC Press, pp. 1-28.

Entered by: Michael Coyne
Modified by: Matthew Godfrey
Entered: 2003-09-09 12:58:53
Last modified: 2005-05-05 21:40:02