Under the ''

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted Convention (norm), convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific name, scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the I ...

'' (''Code''), the name-bearing type or onomatophore is the

biological type In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) 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 t ...

that determines the application of a name. Each animal

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

regulated by the ''Code'' at least potentially has a name-bearing type.''Code'', Article 61.1 The name-bearing type can be either a

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

(

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

group),''Code'', Article 63

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

(

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

group),''Code'', Article 67.1 or one or more

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) 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 ancho ...

s (

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

group).''Code'', Article 72.1.2 For example, the name ''Mabuya maculata'' (Gray, 1839) has often been used for the Noronha skink (currently ''Trachylepis atlantica''), but because the name-bearing type of the former, a lizard preserved in the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

in Paris, does not represent the same species as the Noronha skink, the name ''maculata'' cannot be used for the latter.

Effect on synonymy

Under the ''ICZN'', two names of the same rank that have the same name-bearing type are

objective synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

s, as are two whose name-bearing types are themselves objectively synonymous names;''Code'', Glossary, "objective synonym" for example, the names ''Didelphis brevicaudata'' Erxleben, 1777, and ''Didelphys brachyuros'' Schreber, 1778, were both based on a specimen (now in the British Museum of Natural History) described by Seba in 1734 and are therefore objective synonyms (the species they refer to, a small South American opossum, is currently known as '' Monodelphis brevicaudata''). In contrast, a subjective synonym is based on a different name-bearing type, but is regarded as representing the same taxon;''Code'', Glossary, "subjective synonym"; Article 61.3.1 for example, the name ''Viverra touan'' Shaw, 1800, is based on a different name-bearing type (a specimen in the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

), but is currently regarded as representing the same species as ''Didelphis brevicaudata'' and ''Didelphys brachyuros''.

Family group

"Family-group" ranks include the superfamily and all other ranks below it and above the

, including the

and

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

.''Code'', Article 35.1 The name of a family-group taxon is based on the stem of a designated

;''Code'', Article 63 for example, the Central American rodent tribe Nyctomyini has '' Nyctomys'' as its type genus and its name consists of the stem of the type genus, Nyctomy-, and the appropriate ending for a tribe, -ini.

Genus group

"Genus group" ranks consist of the

and

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

.''Code'', Article 42.1 The name-bearing type for a genus-group taxon is the

, which must be one of the species included when that taxon ("genus" hereafter for brevity) was first formally named''Code'', Article 67.2 or, when no species were included when the genus was named, one of the first species that were subsequently included in it.''Code'', Article 67.2.2 A genus described after 1930 (1999 for ichnotaxa) must have its type species fixed when first named;''Code'', Article 67.4 in taxa described earlier without such an explicit designation, the type species can be fixed subsequently.''Code'', Article 69.1 For example, the

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

genus ''Euprepis'' contained nine species when first described by Wagler in 1830, but no type species was designated. In 2002, Mausfeld and others used the name for a mainly African group of skinks, designating ''Lacerta punctata'' Linnaeus, 1758, as the type species (currently '' Lygosoma punctatum''), but in 2003, Bauer noted that Loveridge had already fixed the type species of ''Euprepis'' in 1957 as ''Scincus agilis'' (currently '' Mabuya agilis''), invalidating the later fixation by Mausfeld and others. Accordingly, ''Euprepis'' is now a subjective synonym of '' Mabuya'' and the mostly African group Mausfeld and others incorrectly called ''Euprepis'' is known as '' Trachylepis''.

Species group

Official "species-group" ranks consist of just the

and

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

.''Code'', Article 45.1 (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 In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of or ...

.) The name-bearing type of a species-group taxon (hereafter "species" for brevity) is an actual specimen or set of specimens; the ''Code'' recommends that great care should be exercised to ensure the preservation of such specimens. It can either be designated in the publication establishing the name or designated later. In the former case, there is either a single name-bearing type, a

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

,''Code'', Article 73.1 or a set of syntypes. In species named before 2000 without explicit designation of a holotype, all specimens in the type series are considered as syntypes.''Code'', Article 73.2 Name-bearing types designated after the original publication include

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) 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 ...

s and

neotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) 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 ...

s. If a taxon has syntypes, one of those can be selected as the lectotype,''Code'', Article 74.1 upon which act the others lose the status of syntype.''Code'', Article 73.2.2 A neotype may be designated to replace the previous name-bearing type when the original type is lost or by application to the

Commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

when the previous name-bearing type cannot be identified.''Code'', Article 75 For example, Shaw's name ''Viverra touan'' was based on a description of "Le Touan" by

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, and cosmology, cosmologist. He held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the ''Jardin du Roi'', now ca ...

, which left the identity of the name uncertain, and in 2001 Voss and others selected as the neotype a specimen in the

, which thereby becomes the name-bearing type. Sittardus Scyllarides latus

The name-bearing type is usually an individual animal in a museum collection; for example, the name-bearing type (in this case, lectotype) of the skink species currently known as '' Trachylepis maculata'' (Gray, 1839) is a lizard preserved in the collections of the French Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.Miralles et al., 2009, fig. 7, p. 62 Other kinds of name-bearing types are also allowed by the ''Code'', including colonies of asexually reproducing animals, natural casts of fossils, a series of stages of the life cycle of a living protistan (a hapantotype), and some others.''Code'', Article 72.5 If an illustration or description is used as the basis of a species, the specimen or group of specimens illustrated or described is the name-bearing type (not the illustration or description itself), even if no longer in existence.''Code'', Articles 72.5.1, 73.4.1

Notes

:''References to ''"Code"'' refer to the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999).''

Literature cited

* Bauer, A.M. 2003. "On the identity of ''Lacerta punctata'' (Linnaeus 1758), the type species of the genus ''Euprepis'' (Wagler 1830), and the generic assignment of Afro-Malagasy skinks." ''African Journal of Herpetology'' 52:1–7. * Groves, C.P. 2005. "Order Primates." Pp. 111–184 in Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M. (eds.).
Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference
3rd ed.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. * Holthuis, L.B. 1996.
Original watercolours donated by Cornelius Sittardus to Conrad Gesner, and published by Gesner in his (1558–1670) works on aquatic animals
. ''Zoologische Mededelingen'' 70:169–196. * International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 1999.
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th ed.
' London: International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature. * Mausfeld, P. and Vrcibradic, D. 2002.
On the nomenclature of the skink (''Mabuya'') endemic to the western Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
' (subscription only). ''Journal of Herpetology'' 36(2):292–295. * Miralles, A., Chaparro, J.C. and Harvey, M.B. 2009.
Three rare and enigmatic South American skinks
(first page only). ''Zootaxa'' 2012:47–68. * Musser, G.G. and Carleton, M.D. 2005. "Superfamily Muroidea." Pp. 894–1531 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). "
Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference
', 3rd ed." Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. {{ISBN, 978-0-8018-8221-0 * Voss, R.S., Lunde, D.P. and Simmons, N.B. 2001.
The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana: a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 2. Nonvolant species
" ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural Histor''y 263:1–236. Zoological nomenclature