The Type Specimen.
When a scientist describes and gives a scientific name to a plant or animal for the
first time, the actual specimen that he was working from is known as the 'type' and is
deposited in a museum such as the BMNN.
For example, the vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis was first described in 1903
by Carl Chun, a German teuthologist. The type specimen was taken on the Valdivia expedition in
the Atlantic Ocean, and was illustrated by the expedition's artist, a fellow named Rübsamen.
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