Sorry Paul, but you make some small mistake.
Linne never described animals in the genus Panthera. Al his cats were
described in the genus Felis.
The leopard was originaly named Felis leopardus, the lion Felis leo. (now
both in Panthera). leopardus is nothing more then "spotted lion"!
 
Gijs
 
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> Van: Paul Monfils <[log in to unmask]>
> Aan: [log in to unmask]
> Onderwerp: Cypraea camelopardalis
> Datum: vrijdag 1 mei 1998 16:28
>
> You wrote:
> <And how about Cypraea camelopardalis?>
>
> The name of this species is a good example of the way scientific
> names evolve.  Linnaeus, in naming the various animals he was
> familiar with, often used the common Latin noun, when there was one,
> as the genus name for the animal he was naming.  For example, the
> camel was an animal widely known long before Linnaeus' time, and
> therefore, as you might expect, it had common names in several
> languages.  The common name for this animal in Latin was camelus.
> Therefore, Linnaeus used Camelus as the genus for the camel.  The
> common Latin word for leopard, also a well-known animal, was pardus.
> However, Linnaeus couldn't use pardus as the genus of the leopard
> because the tiger had already been named Panthera tigris, and
> Linnaeus felt that the leopard was closely enough related to the
> tiger to be placed in the same genus - Panthera.  So instead, he used
> the Latin word for leopard as the species name, rather than the genus
> name, and called the leopard Panthera pardus.  In naming the giraffe,
> again there was a common Latin noun available - giraffa - so that
> became the genus name of the giraffe.  In choosing the species name,
> Linnaeus observed that this strange beast had the head of a camel and
> the markings of a leopard; therefore he took the genus name of the
> camel (Camelus) and the species name of the leopard (pardus), and
> combined them to form the name camelopardalis.  The giraffe became
> known to the scientific world as Giraffa camelopardalis.  Many years
> later, Perry was presented with specimens of a new cowrie from the
> Red Sea area.  Its tawny color and spotted pattern reminded him of
> the markings of a giraffe (you have to give these guys credit for
> imagination if nothing else!).  He might have named this new species
> Cypraea giraffa (which I have always thought would have been the
> preferred choice), but instead he went to the species name of the
> giraffe, and used it for the cowrie, so we ended up with the tongue
> twister Cypraea camelopardalis (common name, as you might guess -
> giraffe cowrie).
>
> Paul M.