Applied to individuals as unique or as typical of a class.

Technical uses from senses 5–7. Natural History. A species or genus which most perfectly exhibits the essential characters of its family or group…

the genus which most perfectly exemplifies the essential characters of the family to which it belongs; esp. the genus from which the name of the…

a species which most perfectly exemplifies its genus; esp. the species on which the genus is based.

spec. in Comparative Anatomy. An assumed ideal pattern of the fundamental structure of each great division of organized beings, of which the various…

(a) Natural History a specimen or individual on which the species is based, and from which the specific name is taken; also figurative; (b) a…

Taxonomy. A genus or other taxon based on a single species or specimen.

An organism that formerly occurred in a specified region but is now extinct there.

One of two or more specimens upon which the description of a species is based; an additional type-specimen; = syntype, n. (which has superseded cotype…

A specimen mentioned in the original description of a species in addition to the holotype (or isotypes).

a specimen from the locality where the original type-specimen was obtained.

Taxonomy. A specimen identified as a type by someone other than the author of the original description, after comparison with the holotype.

The type-species of a genus. Now disused.

A specimen chosen as the basis of the first description of a new species. Cf. cotype, n., syntype, n.

= homotype, n. 2.

A specimen from the original material serving as the basis for a description of a new species, selected as the type in the absence of a holotype.

Taxonomy. A specimen chosen to serve as a new type (type, n. 8) in a case where the original type material has been lost or destroyed, or is…

Any one of the original set of specimens from which a species has been described and named.

Taxonomy. A designated paratype of the opposite sex to the holotype.

Taxonomy. A species taken as the type species of a genus because no other was originally included in the genus. rare.