What's in a pterosaur's name?
Every organism that scientists have studied in depth has a scientific name, usually made from Latin or Greek roots so researchers worldwide can use the same name whatever language they speak. Names are two italicized words: a genus, which starts with a capital letter, and a species, which does not.
The genus is a larger lineage made up of one or more species. For instance, tigers have the scientific name Panthera tigris, with the species name tigris referring just to tigers, and the genus Panthera being the lineage with not only tigers but also lions (Panthera leo) and jaguars (Panthera onca).
It's not a typo
Larger lineages, made up of dozens or hundreds of species, are given names like families, orders, and classes. Some groups are named after a specific genus and have similar names that only differ in their suffixes.
Generally speaking, a lineage ending in -oidea is a larger group that can include several lineages ending in -idae. Members of -oidea are called -oids, while members of -idae are called -ids.
Art by Franz Anthony.
