Is anyone aware of a site or book which lists an animals taxonomic/scientific/latin name in reference to its colloquial name? For example, what would a racoon dogs taxonomic name be? Thanks for any help.
All domesticated dogs (poodles, great danes and racoon dogs) are the same species, Canis lupus familiaris.
Well, the cat family and dog family have been changed over the years-
the current name for the raccon dog seems to be Nyctereutes procyonoides
Start here and have a look around.
In general, the Audubon guides to mammals/insects/amphibians or whatever provide both of those pieces of information on the critters they include. However, Audubon doesn’t have ID books on domesticated animals such as dogs, so there you’d have to find a specific text devoted to them.
Britannica has the goods on almost every critter. Perhaps even a grocery store encyclopedia would help.
Plenty of authoritative works around, just about any scientific guide above the level of those for the young or very general subject matter will generally include both. They will not, however, explain the derivation. For that you’ll need a little handbook on Latin and Greek roots to start with and even then a lot of scientific names are Latinizations of, say, some researcher’s name who is being honored by having a critter named after him or perhaps particular locality :).
For mammals the most authoritative guide I can think of Walker’s Mammals of the World in two volumes.
Oh and just a correction for Fear Itself ( though Eburacum45 has already alluded to it ), the Raccoon Dog is not a domestic breed. Rather it’s a wild asian Canid.
- Tamerlane
Whoops, thanks for stamping out my ignorance, Tamerlane!
A good site for this is the Animal Diversity Web
Doing a search on the site’s home page for “Raccoon Dog” yields the following: Nyctereutes procyonoides Raccoon Dog