Scientists anchor first scientific animal name to a modern-day spider

Scientists led by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have restored the physical reference of one of the most historically significant names in biology. In a paper published in Taxonomy, researchers designated a new type specimen, or neotype, for Araneus angulatus, the first animal species described using binomial nomenclature, the two-part naming system that scientists use today to identify and classify living organisms. The designation reconnects the name to a physical specimen decades after the original name-bearing spiders disappeared.