Donald J. Borror's Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining
Forms (Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, CA, 1960) is quite a
useful reference to many of the elements which make up more mundane
scientific names.
Tim Williams' A Dictionary of the Roots and Combining Forms of
Scientific Words (Lulu Press, 2005). Even more complete than
Borror's work.
Bo Beolens et al., The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). For practically
every reptile named after a person, this tells who the person is.
Names of the Reptiles
and Amphibians of North America has translations and etymologies
for damn near all of them, with bibliographic and myth notes on the
people and figures from mythology that are sources for names.
Down with
species, a brief article about a proposal to replace Linnaean
taxonomy with one based on "Least-inclusive taxonomic units."
Alroy, John, 2002. How many
named species are valid?PNAS 99: 3706-3711.
(". . . 24-31% of currently accepted names eventually will prove
invalid. . . .")
Biopat
allows you to buy the
privelege of naming a newly discovered species yourself. (The ICZN
denounces it as a "striking departure from scientific tradition" that
would "irreversibly obscure science and hinder conservation
efforts.")
