The type specimens and type localities of the orangutans, genus Pongo Lacépède, 1799 (Primates: Hominidae).

Uncertain type localities undermine orangutan nomenclature. Bequeathed to the British Museum, the holotype ofPongo pygmaeus, according to Hans Sloane’s catalogue, came from Borneo and died in China. The historical evidence makes Banjarmasin its most probable type locality. William Montgomerie, Assistant Surgeon at Singapore from 1819–1827, and Senior Surgeon from 1832, supplied the holotype ofSimia morio. In 1836 an adult female orangutan reached Singapore alive from Pontianak, Borneo. The holotypes ofS. morio, S. hendrikzii, S. straussiiandP[ithecus]oweniiprobably had the same origin, as pirate attacks endangered visits to other Bornean coasts. Absent from Brunei and north Sarawak, Malaysia, throughout the Holocene, orangutans occur there only as Pleistocene subfossils at Niah.Pan vetus(the Piltdown mandible) probably came from Paku, Sarawak. We identifyPongo borneoLacépède, 1799 as an objective senior synonym ofP. wurmbiiTiedemann, 1808, correcting its type locality from Sukadana to near Pontianak. This is the earliest name for the western subspecies (previously thought nominotypical) unlessPithecus curtus, probably from the Sadong River, Sarawak, represents a separate subspecies. If so, the namePongo borneowould transfer to the southern population west of the Kahayan River, genetically distinguished at species level from the Sumatran orangutan,P. abelii. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]