The scientific name for a dog is Canis lupus familiaris. The Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published the two-word naming of species (binomial nomenclature) in 1758, and he classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris and the grey wolf as Canis lupus. Dogs are the most variable mammal on earth with around 450 globally recognized dog breeds. They are domesticated descendants of the wolf and are derived from extinct Pleistocene wolves.