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Exploring Holotypes in Taxonomy

This quiz explores the concept of holotypes in taxonomy, focusing on their definitions, examples, and relevance in biological classification.

#holotype #taxonomy #biology #paleontology #classification

1 The holotype of Pelorosaurus humerocristatus, a large herbivore dinosaur from the early ________ period, is a fossil leg bone stored at the Natural History Museum in London.

2 For example in both the ICBN and the ICZN a "________" is a type that was later appointed in the absence of the original holotype.

3 Sometimes just a fragment of an organism is the holotype, for example in the case of a rare ________.

4 A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the ________ (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described.

5 For example, the holotype for the butterfly Lycaeides idas longinus is held by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at ________, and the holotype for the extinct mammal Cimolodon is at the University of Alberta.

6 A holotype is one of several possible ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the original specimen of the mauve splitting waxcap, a fungus from eastern Australia, found its way from Melbourne to Budapest but disappeared during the First World War.
  • the extinct sweat bee genus Nesagapostemon is known from a single 9.9-millimetre (0.39 in) female specimen.
  • the marine fish Caranx sansun, first described in 1775, has no common name, has no known holotype, and is labeled a nomen dubium as the correct identification is unlikely to be made.
  • the recently named trematopid temnospondyl Fedexia was named after the shipping service FedEx, which owned the land where the holotype specimen was found.
  • the holotype specimen of the dinosaur Linheraptor is one of few nearly complete dromaeosaurid skeletons, worldwide.
  • the extinct sweat bee Augochlora leptoloba is known from a single specimen now in a private collection in Turin, Italy.
  • although Esenbeckia runyonii is common in parts of Mexico's Sierra Madre Oriental, the type specimen was collected from a disjunct population of trees in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas.
  • due to the rarity of the recently-discovered Old World babbler Bugun Liocichla, no type specimen was collected; instead, feathers from the mist net and notes were used as the holotype.
  • out of the described snakefly specimens from the Florissant Formation, the Raphidia funerata holotype is the most complete.
  • after the holotype specimen of the Robust redhorse (pictured) was lost in the 1800s, the fish was thought to have become extinct until its rediscovery in 1991.
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