The type specimen of humanity
The Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers the following definition of a "type specimen":
Biologists have amassed type specimens for hundreds of thousands of different species. But by the mid-twentieth century it had occurred to some of them that they were missing a type specimen for one very important species: Homo sapiens.
In 1959, the botanist William Stearn offered a solution to this problem: Make Carl Linnaeus, the founder of modern taxonomy, the type specimen for all of humanity.
The story is told by Jason Roberts in Every Living Thing (his new biography of Carl Linnaeus):
Seven years later the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature adopted Stearn's suggestion and officially made the body of Linnaeus (entombed in Uppsala Cathedral) the type specimen for all of humanity.
The website Nutcracker Man has photographs of the type specimens for all the known hominim species. At the bottom of the list, next to Homo sapiens, is a portrait of Linnaeus.
More info: whyevolutionistrue.com
A type specimen is a preserved specimen designated as a permanent reference for a new species, new genus or some other taxon. The type is the first specimen bearing the new scientific name, and the one true example of the species.
Biologists have amassed type specimens for hundreds of thousands of different species. But by the mid-twentieth century it had occurred to some of them that they were missing a type specimen for one very important species: Homo sapiens.
In 1959, the botanist William Stearn offered a solution to this problem: Make Carl Linnaeus, the founder of modern taxonomy, the type specimen for all of humanity.
Carl Linnaeus. (source: wikipedia)
The story is told by Jason Roberts in Every Living Thing (his new biography of Carl Linnaeus):
The concept of type specimen is central to Linnean taxonomy. Since a species is defined by a physical description, that description necessarily requires looking at a physical object (either a preserved specimen or a detailed illustration). This object becomes the "type," the fixed standard by which all subsequent specimens are identified as "typical" of the species.
The methodology had relaxed somewhat in the first part of the twentieth century, with some scientists substituting instead a syntype, a listing of several examples of a species, none of which had priority over the other. But Stearn was writing in light of a recent crackdown. The keepers of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature had announced a return to Linnean orthodoxy: All new species would henceforth again be defined by a single instance only, called either a holotype (if chosen by the first describer of the species) or a lectotype (if chosen at a later date). Linnaeus's specimens became holotypes as soon as he used them in compiling Systema Naturae... Its specimens were the definitive examples- the embodiments, so to speak- of their respective species.
Yet Linnaeus had neglected to collect the type specimen of one important species. He had never supplied a holotype for Homo sapiens, and for that matter had defined the species only with the terse phrase nosce te ipsum, Latin for "know yourself." Stearn proposed a novel means of correcting this omission. Since "the specimen most carefully studied and recorded by the author is to be accepted as the type," he wrote, the appropriate lectotype was obvious. Linnaeus had presumably examined himself for decades, even if only by glancing in the mirror while shaving.
"Clearly," Stearn concluded, "Linnaeus himself. .. must stand as the type of his Homo sapiens!"
The methodology had relaxed somewhat in the first part of the twentieth century, with some scientists substituting instead a syntype, a listing of several examples of a species, none of which had priority over the other. But Stearn was writing in light of a recent crackdown. The keepers of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature had announced a return to Linnean orthodoxy: All new species would henceforth again be defined by a single instance only, called either a holotype (if chosen by the first describer of the species) or a lectotype (if chosen at a later date). Linnaeus's specimens became holotypes as soon as he used them in compiling Systema Naturae... Its specimens were the definitive examples- the embodiments, so to speak- of their respective species.
Yet Linnaeus had neglected to collect the type specimen of one important species. He had never supplied a holotype for Homo sapiens, and for that matter had defined the species only with the terse phrase nosce te ipsum, Latin for "know yourself." Stearn proposed a novel means of correcting this omission. Since "the specimen most carefully studied and recorded by the author is to be accepted as the type," he wrote, the appropriate lectotype was obvious. Linnaeus had presumably examined himself for decades, even if only by glancing in the mirror while shaving.
"Clearly," Stearn concluded, "Linnaeus himself. .. must stand as the type of his Homo sapiens!"
Seven years later the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature adopted Stearn's suggestion and officially made the body of Linnaeus (entombed in Uppsala Cathedral) the type specimen for all of humanity.
The website Nutcracker Man has photographs of the type specimens for all the known hominim species. At the bottom of the list, next to Homo sapiens, is a portrait of Linnaeus.
More info: whyevolutionistrue.com
Comments
Swedes are world champions at changing their names and making up new ones My wife didn´t even know her legal surname until she turned 18 and applied for a passport. (When her parents registered her birth the village vicar wrote down a name he thought was more proper. ( the church used to have REALLY alot of authority back then))
Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 08/07/24 at 05:13 AM
And why not? He deserves recognition, and what better way than this?
Posted by Richard Bos on 08/11/24 at 06:30 AM
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Category: Science | Eighteenth Century