Kid Territory: Make Your Own Scientific Name!
Giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla ("eater of ants, with three fingers")
Once you know the meanings of some Latin and Greek words and word parts, it's fun to experiment and come up with your own scientific names. In order to combine the words, sometimes you need to drop letters, like an "s" on the end. Sometimes you need to add letters, like e, i, or o, in the middle, or an us or um at the end.
Check out our list of words and word parts, and try combining them to make up your own creatures. Once you've made up some names, try drawing pictures of your new creations! (By the way, did you figure out the meanings of the scientific names for the cheetah and the koala?)
Example: a Cerobates dynatos would mean a "strong horned walker." What might that creature look like? An Erythrofloris dicordis would be a "two-hearted red flower." Can you imagine a plant like that? Okay, here's one for you: what would an Orninoctis leptoglossus be?
Word lists |
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How
It Looks |
How It Behaves
adephagos
greedy |
What
It Does
phago-
eat |
Where
It Lives
|
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Body
Parts
dactyl
fingered |
What
It Is, What It Resembles, or Something It Eats
floris
flower |
Place
Names
Africa
africanus, capensis
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African
hedgehog Atelerix
albiventris ("ineffective
fighter with a white belly")
Chuckwalla
sauromalus
obesus ("fat dark lizard")
African
spurred 
