Every known animal has both a common name and a scientific name. While common names are used in everyday situations, ...

Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).

Animal names usually fall into one of two categories. There are the simple, familiar ones we all know—African elephant, common dolphin, brown bear. Or their scientific names, if you want to get ...

From pill bugs to peafowl, the names we give animals tell fascinating stories about culture, science, and history. Common names can be charmingly local—or wildly misleading—while scientific names ...

Stephen Hampton has been watching birds for more than 50 years, and for almost all of that time, he thought nothing of names like Townsend’s warbler or Anna’s hummingbird: “They were just the names in ...