Defintion of spcies.

Mjhavok
Posts: 31
Joined: 2006-11-07
User is offlineOffline
Defintion of spcies.

A definition of species from my textbook "Evolution - Third Edition By Matt Ridley"

Species: An important classificatory category, which can be variously defined by the biological species concept, ecological species concept, phenetic species concept, and recognition species concept. The biological species concept, according to which a species is a set of interbreeding organisms, is the most widely used definition, at least by biologists who study vertebrates. A particular species is referred to by a Linnaean binomial, such as Homo sapiens for human beings.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. "
- Carl Sagan

"Tantum eruditi sunt liberi"

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the


ShadowOfMan
atheist
ShadowOfMan's picture
Posts: 187
Joined: 2006-10-12
User is offlineOffline
I can see why the Biological

I can see why the Biological Species Concept is the most widely used by biologists studying vertebrates and everyday people's own classification, concidering most people hardly ever concider invertebrates regularly.  And I'm pretty sure the Phenetic Species Concept refers to classification of based on the phenotype, valuable amongst dividing organisms without breeding genepools, and were the only way to differenciate between species at that level would be phenotype characteristics.  My question is:  What is the Ecological Species Concept and the Recognition Species Concept?  The RSC sounds a lot like the PSC.  

A daughter of hope and fear, religion explains to Ignorance the nature of the unknowable. -Ambrose Bierce


thraxas
thraxas's picture
Posts: 89
Joined: 2007-05-14
User is offlineOffline
I couldn't find your

I couldn't find your question in there for a second- it looked like a full quote ;D.

 

Ecological Species

 An ecological species is an adapted population that has occupied a specific niche in an environment. That is to say that species we would recognize as indepedent under a Biological Species concept may be grouped together under ecological. Usually the species are very closely related (biologically)

 

Recognition Species

 This is based on the idea that organisms of the same species will recognize each other. This is not cognizance but a biological recognizing. That is the organisms of this species are reproductively compatible.

 

;] 

Biochemist & Law Student

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." -Thomas Jefferson


Yellow_Number_Five
atheistRRS Core MemberScientist
Yellow_Number_Five's picture
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2006-02-12
User is offlineOffline
There isn't a more grey

There isn't a more grey term in biology than "species" - as we should expect given the tennents of natural selection.

 Still, Ernst Mayr is credited with establishing the first species concept which is essentially: all individuals of a naturally occurring group of organisms that will reproduce in the wild without outside coercion and produce fertile offpring capable of similar production.

  

 

I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins

Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.


LeftofLarry
RRS local affiliateScientist
LeftofLarry's picture
Posts: 1199
Joined: 2006-02-12
User is offlineOffline
Molecular systematics is

Molecular systematics is constantly redefining species. As we learn more....phylogenetic relationships are reclassified.

Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server which houses Celebrity Atheists.


Mjhavok
Posts: 31
Joined: 2006-11-07
User is offlineOffline
When will we discover what

When will we discover what species a crocoduck is?


LeftofLarry
RRS local affiliateScientist
LeftofLarry's picture
Posts: 1199
Joined: 2006-02-12
User is offlineOffline
Mjhavok wrote: When will we

Mjhavok wrote:
When will we discover what species a crocoduck is?

 

It's not a species silly, it's a transitional form.. Wink  

Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server which houses Celebrity Atheists.