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Paratype vs. Holotype — What's the Difference?

Paratype vs. Holotype — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Paratype and Holotype

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Paratype

One of two or more biological specimens or other elements from which a holotype was designated in the original published description of a species or subspecies.

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several examples, but explicitly designated as the holotype.

Paratype

In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Often there is more than one paratype.

Holotype

The single specimen or other element used or designated as the type specimen of a species or subspecies in the original published description of the taxon.

Paratype

(taxonomy) A physical specimen (or an illustration) that is not the holotype but is considered the same taxon by the author of the holotype.
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Holotype

(taxonomy) The single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used to formally describe the species (or lower-order taxon), subsequently to be kept as a reference.

Holotype

The original specimen from which the description of a new species is made

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