Type of *Homo sapiens* was Re: Sauropod museums in New England

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> I don't remember when the ICZN published that Opinion, but it was
> several years ago in any case.

John Wilkins writes to inform me that there's never been an Opinion because 
there never was a question. http://iczn.org/content/who-type-homo-sapiens

Short summary:

Accidentally or not, William Stearns validly selected Linnaeus as the lectotype 
in 1959 simply by writing "Linnaeus himself [...] must stand as the type of his 
*Homo sapiens*". That's enough (Article 74.5).

Cope wouldn't even be eligible as a lectotype (Art. 72.4), but could only be a 
neotype, and a neotype can't be erected when the lectotype doesn't need to be 
replaced.

Incidentally, while Linnaeus named several subspecies, he didn't name the one 
he automatically belongs to (*H. s. sapiens*), and he definitely didn't 
consider himself part of his *H. s. europaeus*: he had brown hair and brown 
eyes, but diagnosed *H. s. europaeus* as "with blond [...] hair and blue eyes".