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Latin Lingo

OBJECTIVE

The Greek and Latin root words that make up the scientific name often describe the animal. Using the Greek and Latin root words below, students will decode each dolphin's scientific name.

GRADE LEVEL

4-8

MATERIALS

• papers
• markers or crayons
• dictionary

BACKGROUND

Each species of dolphin has a scientific name. This helps scientists know exactly which animal is being discussed, even though it may have more than one common name. For example, what one scientist calls a short-snouted spinner dolphin, another might call a Clymene dolphin. But if they used the mane Stenella clymene, they would both understand which dolphin they were discussing.

Root Words


• acutus--sharp or pointed
  
• albus--white
  
• australis--southern
  
• borealis--northern
  
• coeruleus--sky blue
  
• cephale--head
  
• crassus--thick
  
• crucis--cross
  
• dens--tooth
  
• delphis--dolphin
  
• gero--bear, carry
  
• globus--globe, ball
  
• grampus--a kind of whale
  
• griseus--gray
  
• lagen--a flask
  
• lisso--smooth
  
• melanus--black
  
• obscurus--dark
  
• orca--a kind of whale
  
• ops--face
  
• pseudos--false
  
• rostris--beak, snout
  
• rhynchos--beak, snout
  
• stenos--narrow
  
• truncare--cut off
  
• ursio--dolphin
  

example:

Tursiops truncatus (bottlenose dolphin) = dolphin with a cut-off face

Stenella coeruleoalba (striped dolphin) =

Grampus griseus (Risso's dolphin) =

Lagenorhynchus obscurus (dusky dolphin) =

Globicephala melaena (long-finned pilot whale) =

Lagenorhynchus actus (Atlantic white-sided dolphin) =

Pseudorca crassidens (false killer whale) =

Lagenorhynchus albirostris (white-beaked dolphin) =

Lagenorhynchus cruciger (hourglass dolphin) =

Lissodelphin borealis (northern right whale dolphin) =

Lagenorhynchus australis (Peale's dolphin) =

Now it's your turn! Use the root words listed above to create a name for an imaginary species of dolphin, and draw a picture of it.

For more information, visit Bottlenose Dolphins - Animal Resources
What is a Dolphin? - helpful background information
Return to Classroom Activities

SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database
www.seaworld.org / www.buschgardens.org

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