In biology, a type is a particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the defining features of that particular taxon. In older usage, a type was a taxon rather than a specimen.
The Ganges shark is a critically endangered species of requiem shark found in the Ganges River and the Brahmaputra River of India and Bangladesh. It is often confused with the more common bull shark, which also inhabits the Ganges River and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Ganges shark. The genus is currently considered to contain three recent species; genetic evidence has shown that both the Borneo river shark and Irrawaddy river shark should be regarded as synonyms of the Ganges shark, expanding the range of the species to Pakistan, Myanmar, Borneo, and Java. While the other members of the genus Glyphis occur in coastal marine waters as well as rivers, the Ganges shark is found only in fresh water, making it the world's only exclusively freshwater shark. The species remains poorly known and very rare.
The Puerto Rican boa is a large species of boa endemic to Puerto Rico. It is a terrestrial snake with a dark brown coloration. It grows to 1.9 m (6.2 ft) in length. It feeds on small mammals such as rodents and bats, birds and sometimes anole lizards. Like most boas, it is viviparous and kills its prey using constriction.
Altiphylax stoliczkai, also known commonly as the frontier bow-fingered gecko, the Baltistan gecko, and the Karakorum gecko is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to South Asia.
Pyxicephalus is a genus of true frogs from Sub-Saharan Africa, commonly referred to as African bull frogs or bull frogs. They are very large to large frogs, with females significantly smaller than males. They may take decades to reach their full size potential and they are some of the longest-living frogs, possibly able to reach ages as high as 45 years.
The great argus is a large species of pheasant from Southeast Asia. It is known for its impressive plumage and courtship behavior. It is not to be confused with the two species of closely related crested argus, genus Rheinardia.
Bufoides kempi is a species of true toad, family Bufonidae. This poorly known species is endemic to Meghalaya, Northeast India. It is only known with certainty from its type series collected "above Tura" at 2,500 ft (760 m) in the Garo Hills no later than 1919; there is also a possible record collected at around 2009. Its common names are Kemp's Asian tree toad, Garo Hills toad, and Garo Hills tree toad. The specific name kempi honours Stanley Wells Kemp, an English zoologist and anthropologist.
The Vanuatu megapode or Vanuatu scrubfowl is a species of bird in the family Megapodiidae. It was formerly known as the New Hebrides scrubfowl. It is found only in Vanuatu. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The species is threatened by habitat loss and egg collecting.
Atretochoana eiselti is a species of caecilian originally known only from two preserved specimens discovered by Sir Graham Hales in the Brazilian rainforest, while on an expedition with Sir Brian Doll in the late 1800s, but rediscovered in 2011 by engineers working on a hydroelectric dam project in Brazil. Until 1998, it was known only from the type specimen in the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna. Originally placed in the genus Typhlonectes in 1968, it was reclassified into its own monotypic genus, Atretochoana, in 1996. It was also found to be more closely related to the genus Potamotyphlus than Typholonectes. The species is the largest of the few known lungless tetrapods, and the only known lungless caecilian.
Cycloramphus duseni is a species of frog in the family Cycloramphidae. It is endemic to southern Brazil and only known from its type series collected in 1911 from near Casa Ypiranga along the Curitiba–Paranaguá railway, in the Serra do Mar, Paraná state. Prior to naming of Cycloramphus izecksohni in 1983, it was confused with this species. The specific name duseni honors Per Dusén, Swedish naturalist who collected the type series. Common name Ypiranga button frog has been coined for this species.
Ainsworth's salamander is an extinct species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It was endemic to the United States and only known from its type series collected in Jasper County, Mississippi in 1964. Later research has cast doubt to its validity; it might be a junior synonym of Plethodon mississippi.
Ptychadena pujoli is a species of frog in the family Ptychadenidae. It is known from Macenta and Sérédou in Guinea, Sukurela in Sierra Leone, and Mount Nimba in Liberia and Ivory Coast. Description of Ptychadena pujoli is based on old museum specimens, and very little is known about the ecology of this relatively recently (1997) described species.
Pseudophilautus hypomelas is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae endemic to Sri Lanka. It is sometimes referred to as the webless shrub frog. In 2004 it was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature when, despite extensive field efforts, no specimen had been seen in the wild after the species was described by Albert Günther in 1876. However, this frog was rediscovered in 2010 in the Peak Wilderness, a highly biodiverse area in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. Thus, this species had been "lost" for more than 130 years.
Pseudophilautus zal, commonly known as the white blotched shrub frog, is an extinct species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. It was endemic to Sri Lanka. It is only known from the type series consisting of three old museum specimens.
Rhacophorus bipunctatus is a frog species in the moss frog family (Rhacophoridae) found from eastern India into Southeast Asia, possibly to southeastern China and south to Malaysia. Due to the identification problems surrounding this species, the eastern and southern limits of its range remain undetermined; all that is known is that the species certainly occurs in the border region of India, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar; its range might extend south to Malaysia, as similar frogs have been reported from Pahang.
Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Code), the name-bearing type is the biological type that determines the application of a name. Each animal taxon regulated by the Code at least potentially has a name-bearing type. The name-bearing type can be either a type genus, type species, or one or more type specimens. For example, the name Mabuya maculata has often been used for the Noronha skink, but because the name-bearing type of the former, a lizard preserved in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, does not represent the same species as the Noronha skink, the name maculata cannot be used for the latter.
Heleosuchus is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was originally described as a species of Saurosternon by Richard Owen. The type species is Saurosternon griesbachi. The specific name honours Carl Ludolf Griesbach. It was later recognized as a separate genus by Robert Broom.
This is a list of terms and symbols used in scientific names for organisms, and in describing the names. For proper parts of the names themselves, see List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names. Note that many of the abbreviations are used with or without a stop.
The Rockstone poison dart frog is a poorly known species of dendrobatid frogs endemic to Guyana. As it is known from only one specimen, very little information is currently available on D. nubeculosus. It has been suggested to be one of the most poorly known species in the world.
Cope's least gecko is a species of lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae. The species is endemic to the West Indies.
