Ben Shoemate's Notebook

While reading up for my earlier post on zoological naming conventions, I ran across a fun fact I hadn't known before:Homo sapiens sapiens has a lectotype—an individual that stands as a descriptive specimen of its whole species. In our case, the lectotype is none other than good ol' Carl Linnaeus, himself. At least, that's according to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Other sources will tell you that our lectotype is American paleontologist Edward Cope, but ICZN has a detailed explanation of why this is not only incorrect, but could not possibly be true, according to the rules that govern the designation of species lectotypes. So there.