TXT : Text record (RFC 1035)
Originally for arbitrary human-readable text in a DNS record. Since the early 1990s, however, this record more often carries machine-readable data, such as specified by RFC 1464, opportunistic encryption, Sender Policy Framework, DomainKeys, DNS-SD, etc.

NS : name server record (RFC 1035)
Delegates a DNS zone to use the given authoritative name servers

AAAA : IPv6 address record (RFC 3596)
Returns a 128-bit IPv6 address, most commonly used to map hostnames to an IP address of the host.

CNAME : Canonical name record (RFC 1035)
Alias of one name to another: the DNS lookup will continue by retrying the lookup with the new name.

NAPTR : Naming Authority Pointer (RFC 3403)
Allows regular expression based rewriting of domain names which can then be used as URIs, further domain names to lookups, etc.

NSEC3 : NSEC record version 3 (RFC 5155)
An extension to DNSSEC that allows proof of nonexistence for a name without permitting zonewalking

TSIG : Transaction Signature (RFC 2845)
Record that supports one set of security mechanisms for DNS. Used to secure communication between DNS resolvers and Name servers, in contrast to DNSSEC, which secures the actual DNS records from the authoritative name server.

SIG : Signature (RFC 2535)
Signature record used in SIG(0) (RFC 2931). Until RFC 3755 was published, the SIG record was part of DNSSEC; now RRSIG is used for that.

DNAME : delegation name (RFC 2672)
DNAME will delegate an entire portion of the DNS tree under a new name. In contrast, the CNAME record creates an alias of a single name. Like the CNAME record, the DNS lookup will continue by retrying the lookup with the new name.

SOA : start of authority record (RFC 1035)
Specifies authoritative information about a DNS zone, including the primary name server, the email of the domain administrator, the domain serial number, and several timers relating to refreshing the zone.

SRV : Service locator (RFC 2782)
Generalized service location record, used for newer protocols instead of creating protocol-specific records such as MX.

* : All cached records (RFC 1035)
Returns all records of all types known to the name server. If the name server does not have any information on the name, the request will be forwarded on. The records returned may not be complete. For example, if there is both an A and an MX for a name, but the name server has only the A record cached, only the A record will be returned.

TKEY : Transaction Key (RFC 2930)
One way of providing a key to be used with TSIG

OPT : Option (RFC 2671)
This is a 'pseudo DNS record type' needed to support EDNS

NSEC : Next-Secure record (RFC 4034)
Part of DNSSEC—used to prove a name does not exist. Uses the same format as the (obsolete) NXT record.

SSHFP : SSH Public Key Fingerprint (RFC 4255)
Resource record for publishing SSH public host key fingerprints in the DNS System, in order to aid in verifying the authenticity of the host.

CERT : Certificate record (RFC 4398)
Stores PKIX, SPKI, PGP, etc.

KEY : Key record (RFC 4034)
Used only for TKEY (RFC 2930). Before RFC 3755 was published, this was also used for DNSSEC, but DNSSEC now uses DNSKEY.