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holotype

holotype

9.9
A single animal or plant used to name and describe a new species
  • noun
  • /ˈhoʊləˌtaɪp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : holotipo
  • Male (holotype). Body slightly larger than that of most species of the genus Parendacustes.
  • holotype specimen
  • Holotype: male
  • Holotype: female

Examples

  • Parts that are black are not known in the holotype and are reconstructed on the basis of other specimens or other archaic cetaceans.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Holotype: female, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua Province, environs of Fawi = Faowi Vill.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The name Pacificus merely underscores the fact that the original specimen -- the holotype -- came from the Pacific coast of Australia.

    Academic text (2002)
  • And so, nearly a hundred years had passed since the holotype specimen had been dragged off an Australian beach, and Longman's beaked whale, as it had become known, had revealed itself to science only twice, offering up just two damaged skulls.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Material. Holotype: male, Southern India, "Anamalai Hills, Cinchona, 3500 Ft., P.S.N.," IV. 1960 (MOON).

    Academic text (2018)
  • Reconstruction of the skeleton of the holotype, that is, the specimen that best represents the distinctive features of the species, of Ambulocetus natans (H-GSP 18507).

    Academic text (2001)
  • At about the same time, Merel Dalebout, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, had managed to extract and sequence some of the DNA from the Indopacetus holotype.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Material. Holotype: male, Indonesia, Maluku Utara Province, Halmahera Island, environs of Subaim Village near Wasile Gulf, primary/secondary forest on hills, on bark of large dead tree at night, 27.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The holotype of the new species was carefully preserved at the museum for further study.

  • Scientists often rely on the holotype for accurate identification of newly discovered species.

Synonyms

type specimen
vsholotype
  • Specialized
1 9.1

An animal or plant kept as the original example for naming a new species

is the specific scientific term for that single original specimen

Surface Forms

holotype singular
holotypes plural

Morphology

holotype = type (semi-transparent) = holo + type

The combining form 'holo-' means 'whole' but is technical and not transparent to most B1 learners, and the taxonomic sense 'single name-bearing specimen' is specialized.

Etymology

Holotype comes from the parts holo- meaning 'whole' and -type meaning 'model' or 'kind', so it names the single example that serves as the model for a species.