Defintion of spcies.
Offline 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.
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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.
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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.
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Biochemist & Law Student
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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.
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Molecular systematics is constantly redefining species. As we learn more....phylogenetic relationships are reclassified.
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When will we discover what species a crocoduck is?
It's not a species silly, it's a transitional form..
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