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Note: a species group defined as a taxon, rather than as a category of ranks, has an unofficial rank, one of several such ranks between the subgenus and species levels sometimes used by zoologists in taxa with many species; see Taxonomic rank.) The name-bearing type of a species-group taxon (hereafter "species" for brevity) is an actual ...
In many cases species-group names have no type specimens, or they are lost. In those cases the application of the species-group name is usually based on common acceptance. If there is no common acceptance, there are provisions in the Code to fix a name-bearing type specimen that is binding for users of that name.
The binomial name often reflects limited knowledge or hearsay about a species at the time it was named. For instance Pan troglodytes, the chimpanzee, and Troglodytes troglodytes, the wren, are not necessarily cave-dwellers. Sometimes a genus name or specific descriptor is simply the Latin or Greek name for the animal (e.g. Canis is Latin for ...
The taxon must be given a name based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (a binomial for new species, or uninomial for other ranks). The name must be unique (i.e. not a homonym). The description must be based on at least one name-bearing type specimen.
The term "type species" is regulated in zoological nomenclature by article 42.3 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, which defines a type species as the name-bearing type of the name of a genus or subgenus (a "genus-group name"). In the Glossary, type species is defined as
The syntypes collectively constitute the name-bearing type." (Glossary of the zoological Code [ 1 ] ). Historically, it was common to describe a new species or subspecies from several syntypes without designating a holotype, but this practice is generally frowned upon by modern taxonomists, and most are gradually being replaced by lectotypes.
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature provides that any named taxon in the family group, genus group, or species group have a name-bearing type which allows the name of the taxon to be objectively applied. The type does not define the taxon: that is done by a taxonomist; and an indefinite number of competing definitions can exist ...
A type species is the nominal species that is the name-bearing type of a nominal genus or subgenus. A type genus is the nominal genus that is the name-bearing type of a nominal family-group taxon. The type series are all those specimens included by the author in a taxon's formal description, unless the author explicitly or implicitly excludes ...