the original specimen from which a description of a new species is made
Also called: holotype
type specimen in American English
type (sense 9) type (sense 9a)
type specimen in American English
noun
Biology
an individual organism from which the description of a species has been prepared
Word origin
[1890–95]This word is first recorded in the period 1890–95. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: blip, neoclassicism, phoneme, pogey, takedown
Examples of 'type specimen' in a sentence
type specimen
In its extensive collections of type specimens, it includes worldwide examples dating back to 1616.