type specimen

noun

Updated on: 21 May 2018

Definition of type specimen

: a specimen or individual designated as type of a species or lesser group and serving as the final criterion of the characteristics of that group

Recent Examples of type specimen from the Web

Prasad has ruled out donating his type specimens—which defined new species of dinosaurs and early mammals—to his own University of Delhi, one of the best in the nation.

— sanjay kumar, Science | AAAS, "India’s paleontologists fight destruction of its fossil riches," 4 Apr. 2018
But since Linnaeus’ body was never exhumed from its resting place in Sweden, his posthumous status as the human type specimen is more of a formality than a practicality.

— ellen airhart, WIRED, "How Wikipedia Portrayed Humanity in a Single Photo," 10 Mar. 2018
Neither the photographer nor the subjects agreed to provide our digital type specimens.

— ellen airhart, WIRED, "How Wikipedia Portrayed Humanity in a Single Photo," 10 Mar. 2018
But having the type specimen from the greater Miami area is still pretty cool.

— jenny staletovich, miamiherald, "Florida has four new wasps. One rare species got a name just for Marlins’ fans," 19 Jan. 2018
Many of the researchers carry sophisticated species databases with them on their laptop computers, including photos of type specimens.

— richard conniff, Smithsonian, "A New Age of Discovery Is Happening Right Now in the Remote Forests of Suriname," 29 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'type specimen.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.