type of Homo sapiens

[Gomez Luis Diego]

Both Ivie and Jensen are partly correct. Carolus linnaeus himself can not
be the type specimen but like Jensen points out any materials in Linnaeus'
hands at the time of his establishing the binomial are typical material.
Mr Linne would not be part of the Materials or Specimens studied even if
he wrote several autobiographies.

On Mon, 1 Jan 1996, Richard Jensen wrote:

> This is an interesting topic for discussion.  As I recall the earlier
> discussion, last August, it was clear that Linnaeus did not designate a
> type specimen.  The argument that Linnaeus himself should serve as the
> type was based largely, if not entirely, on the facts that he wrote
> several autobiographies and obviously was quite familiar with his own
> characteristics - thus, he is among the "specimens" examined.
>
> This strikes me as a somewhat specious argument.  Suppose I named a
> species of tree and didn't designate a holotype.  In my personal
> herbarium, someone finds a specimen of the taxon that was collected from
> an old tree that was in my front yard.  The specimen is not designated by
> me as a type.  The argument put forth is that this tree was clearly among
> the specimens I examined; after all, I would see it every time I walked
> out the door.  Therefore, even though I designated no type, this specimen
> would be declared the holotype?  I don't think so.  At best, it would be
> declared a lectotype and, furthermore, if I read the botanical code
> correctly, it could be designated a lectotype only if it could be
> verified that this specimen was among the materials I used to develop my
> description of the new taxon.
>
> I will risk being called a fool (in my opinion, an unfortunate and
> unnecessary choice of words by Mike Ivie), and suggest that there appears
> to be a legitimate question about what the type specimen of _Homo_ _sapiens_
> is.
>
> Richard J. Jensen      |   E-MAIL: rjensen at saintmarys.edu
> Dept. of Biology       |   TELEPHONE: 219-284-4674
> Saint Mary's College   |   FAX: 219-284-4716
> Notre Dame, IN  46556  |
>