Stupid board lag…<grumble grumble>
Linneaus, of course, did not designate a type specimen for Homo sapiens, but merely stated “Nosce te ipsum,” “Know thyself.”
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Systema Naturae in 1958, Stearn retroactively designated Linneaus himself as the type. This was disputed by some taxonomists, however, because a proper type specimen needs to be available for study, not buried as Linneaus was.
The previously mentioned Edward Drinker Cope, being both a taxonomist and a supreme egoist, aspired to have himself designated as the type. In accordance with his wishes, after his death in 1897 his skeleton was deposited in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. However, no one actually got around to making the designation until the paleontologist Robert Bakker did so in 1993. This move was controversial, to say the least, in taxonomic circles.