In zoology, "monospecific" is an adjective describing a genus which contains only one known species. The term comes from the Greek prefix "μονο-" meaning "single" and Latin "species" meaning "kind" or "type". It is thus of hybrid origin. Zoology (rarely spelled zoölogy) is the biological discipline which involves the study of non-human animals. ... In grammar, an adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun, usually by describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... For other uses of the word, please see Genus (disambiguation). ... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ...

Of the genera described in zoology, there are more monospecific genera than genera with any other individual number of species. Nevertheless, many genera originally considered monospecific, have been discovered to contain more than one species. Examples include Malapterurus the electric catfish and Loxodonta the african elephant. On the other hand, there are cases such as Pseudorinelepis where after an initial flurry of species descriptions a genus turns out to be monospecific. Species Loxodonta adaurora(extinct) Loxodonta africana Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta is a genus in Elephantidae, the family of elephants. ... Binomial name Pseudorinelepis genibarbis (Valenciennes, 1840) Pseudorinelepis is a genus of the Hypostominae subfamily of the Loricariidae, a genus of four species, named in order of their description to science; (Valenciennes 1840) (Steindachner 1877) (Regan 1904) (Fowler 1940) There is also the contention that the genus is monospecific, and that...

In botany, "monotypic" or "unispecific" are used instead of "monospecificity" to refer to a taxon (at any rank) that includes only one species. "Monotypic" is also used in zoology, but with a different meaning. Pinguicula grandiflora Botany is the scientific study of plantlife. ... Monotypic is an adjective, that refers to a taxonomic group with only one type: in botany it means that a taxon has only one species; Ginkgo is a monotypic genus, while Ginkgoaceae is a monotypic family. ...