What is Type (biology)?
[[File:Marocaster coronatus MHNT.PAL.2010.2.2 (Close up).jpg|thumb|right|Type specimen for ''[[Marocaster coronatus]]'']] In [[biology]], a '''type''' is a [[Type specimen|specimen]], or example, of a [[organism|specific living thing]] or [[taxon]], which is a group of specific living things. For example, if a scientist catches one frog that is not any species of frog that scientists already know, then that frog is the ''type'' of a new species of frog. That species will have a new [[scientific name]]. In older English writings from before 1900, [[botanist|plant scientists]] used the word ''type'' for groups of living things instead of specimens.<ref name=Hitchcock/> A taxon is a group of living things with a scientific name. Taxons can be small or large. A species is a taxon. A genus is a taxon. A [[kingdom (biology)|kingdom]] is a taxon. Taxons are based on published papers with lots of information in them and on type material. Scientists show the type material to other scientists so they can study it. They usually do this by putting the material in museums' research collections.<ref name=Hitchcock>{{citation |author=Hitchcock, A.S. |year=1921 |title=The Type Concept in Systematic Botany |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=8 |issue=5 |pages=251–255 |jstor=2434993 |doi=10.2307/2434993|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/314424 }}</ref><ref name=Smithsonian>{{cite web|last1=Nicholson|first1=Dan H.|title=Botanical nomenclature, types, & standard reference works|url=http://botany.si.edu/references/botlinks/dhntyp.htm|publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany|access-date=17 November 2015}}</ref> ==Type specimen== The [[International Code of Zoological Nomenclature]] (ICZN) and the [[International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants]] (ICN) make rules for type specimens. In these rules, the scientific name of every taxon is almost always based on just one ''specimen''. Types are usually specimens that are kept in a [[museum]] or [[herbarium