Glossary
Synonym
An older or alternative scientific name for the same species, no longer the accepted one.
Species are renamed when they are moved to another genus or when two names turn out to describe the same animal. The superseded names are kept as synonyms so that older books and records can still be matched.
Searching this site by a synonym finds the species under its accepted name.
Related terms
- Scientific name
- The formal two-part name of a species, written in italics: the genus, then the species.
- Authorship
- The person who first formally described a species, and the year, shown after its scientific name.