Karl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is considered the father of modern taxonomy.  His
was not the first attempt at classification of living things, but his enormous
work dwarfs that of his predecessors.  In his day, even the author's name was
written in Latin, so his name is more frequently seen in the Latin form
Carolus Linnaeus.  "Linne." is the accepted abbreviation for use in taxonomy
(most authors with names of more than a few letters have official
abbreviations).  Also, because of Linnaeus's unique position and status in
taxonomy, he is (I believe) the only author whose name can be represented by a
single letter.  "L." after a scientific name (Cypraea argus L.) means
Linnaeus.
I neglected in my previous post to mention the common english name of Cypraea
stercoraria.  It is widely known as the rat cowrie, a name utterly unrelated
to its scientific name, and no doubt intentionally so.  Sometimes a direct
translation of the scientific name just won't doo doo!
Paul M.