Sanskrit

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cross-posting
There are many instances of extinct species named by Hindu figures:
Eg Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus: Two early apes.
Garudimimus- an ornithomimosaur (A kind of dinosaur)
Vinayakia- a basal member of carnivora
Vishnucyon- a basal member of carnivora
Vishnufelis- a basal cat
Sivaelurus- a basal cat
Sivapardus - clouded leopard like cat
Sivapanthera - primitive Indian cheetah
Vishnuictis- a primitive civet
Sivanasua- basal lophocyonid (carnivora, mammalia)
Stegodon ganesa- A primitive elephant
Sivatherium- A 4 horned giraffe. (Griffith believes that this was the
Mrigonahasti of Vishvamitra in his translation of the RV. Others say
it may have been the Kakuha mentioned in the RV).
If you get a chance to go to HP you can see some of these fossil in
the Saketi museum. i have wandered around these fossil beds in the
1990s- still lots to be described.
http://www.gsi.gov.in/saketi.htm

That is of the top of my head there may be more.

An Indian mycologist called Subramanian coined many formal taxonomic
names for Fungi using sanskrit instead of latin. Many of these fungi
were discovered first by him.
Eg:

Tharoopama mississippiensis
Kutilakesa pironii
Bahusutrabeeja dwaya
Bahusakala longispora
Bahusandhika caligans
Bahupaathra samala
Dwayaangam heterospora
Dwayamala prathilomaka
Dwayabeeja sundara
Kramasamuha sibica
Kumanasamuha novozelandica
Koorchaloma okamurae
Narasimhania alismatis
Nalanthamala squamicola
Peethambara sundara
Sutravarana samala
Vanakripa minuteellipsoidea

If anyone does not get the sanskrit meanings of any of these then they
may ask. Subramanian was largely forgotten despite is efforts in
discovering many of these fungi and very few followed up many of these
species that are unique to India. But he did get a fungal genus named
after him:
Subramaniomyces fusisaprophyticus

I feel using sanskrit is great for taxonomy, though I am ambivalent
about the direct use of the names of the gods as in the earlier list.

RR