type specimen

American

noun

Biology.

an individual organism from which the description of a species has been prepared.

type specimen British

noun

Also called: holotype. biology the original specimen from which a description of a new species is made

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of type specimen

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In 2020, the authors set a goal to get a genome sequence for every Psilocybe type specimen.

From Science Daily • Jan. 9, 2024

The general accepted standards are to have a type specimen, or even better, a series of specimens.

From Slate • Nov. 20, 2021

The type specimen of H. habilis, for example, includes a 1.8-million-year-old lower jaw called OH 7 from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 4, 2015

When scientists disagree on whether something is a new species or a variant of a known one, they often need to refer back to the type specimen or even return to where it was collected.

From Nature • Sep. 12, 2013

There is still no type specimen for modern humans.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023