What is isotype and holotype?

What is isotype and holotype?

Holotype: the one specimen* or illustration used by the author, or designated by the author as the nomenclatural type. Isotype: any duplicate specimen of the holotype. Lectotype: a specimen or illustration designated as the type when no holotype was indicated at the time of publication.

What is a holotype in paleontology?

A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. Sometimes just a fragment of an organism is the holotype, for example in the case of a rare fossil.

What does holotype mean?

Medical Definition of holotype 1 : the single specimen designated by an author as the type of a species or lesser taxon at the time of establishing the group. 2 : the type of a species or lesser taxon designated at a date later than that of establishing a group or by another person than the author of the taxon.

What is neotype in biology?

A neotype is a specimen later selected to serve as the single type specimen when an original holotype has been lost or destroyed or where the original author never cited a specimen.

What is the difference between Lectotype and neotype?

The key difference between lectotype and neotype is that lectotype is a specimen designated as the nomenclatural type when the original author of the name did not designate a holotype, while neotype is a specimen selected to replace a holotype that has been lost or destroyed.

How is a holotype chosen?

It is chosen from among the specimens available to the original publishing author (the isotypes, syntypes and/or paratypes) of a scientific name when the holotype was either lost or destroyed, or when no holotype was designated. It is designated by using the type for the name of a particular species within that genus.

What is holotype example?

Sometimes just a fragment of an organism is the holotype, particularly in the case of a fossil. For example, the holotype of Pelorosaurus humerocristatus (Duriatitan), a large herbivorous dinosaur from the early Jurassic period, is a fossil leg bone stored at the Natural History Museum in London.

Who is the human holotype?

There is no actual holotype for H. sapiens. There are a few people who have recently attempted to designate them (the most notorious case involves E.D. Cope’s skull), but these designations were not validly done.

What is holotype nomenclature?

Holotype: The single specimen designated as the type of a species by the original author at the time the species name and description was published. Isotype: A duplicate specimen of the holotype. Syntype: Any of two or more specimens listed in the original description of a taxon when a holotype was not designated.

What is a neotype in biology?

Definition A neotype is the name-bearing type of a nominal species-group taxon designated under conditions specified in this Article when no name-bearing type specimen (i.e. holotype, lectotype, syntype or prior neotype) is believed to be extant and an author considers that a name-bearing type is necessary to define the nominal taxon objectively.

What is the difference between holotype isotype and lectotype?

Holotype: the one specimen* or illustration used by the author, or designated by the author as the nomenclatural type. Isotype: any duplicate specimen of the holotype. Lectotype: a specimen or illustration designated as the type when no holotype was indicated at the time of publication.

What happens in the absence of a holotype?

In the absence of a holotype, another type may be selected, out of a range of different kinds of type, depending on the case, a lectotype or a neotype . For example, in both the ICN and the ICZN a neotype is a type that was later appointed in the absence of the original holotype.

Can a neotype be based on a different sex or stage?

75.3.5. evidence that the neotype is consistent with what is known of the former name-bearing type from the original description and from other sources; however, a neotype may be based on a different sex or life stage, if necessary or desirable to secure stability of nomenclature;

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