Are Species a real thing? It may surprise you to hear.... NOPE!

It's funny, i was just explaining to someone the other day that "species" was actually a very uncertain, artificial term and now here's a pHD student backing me up!
Essentially, there is no consistent way of defining a species which can accurately represent the different circumstances of various organisms past and present. You might think that a species is just a group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring...but lions and tigers can do that even though we consider them separate species.
Find out more in the video if you're interested!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tduwq0I4lYw&ab_channel=GutsickGibbon]

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ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

It's a convenient guideline. Like all science, always open to revision when confronted with new empirical data.

Pikachu

@ChipmunkErnie

Yes exactly: it's convenient.
We like to categorize things and naming species allows us to do that even if it's not actually a delineation which exists in nature.

ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

@Pikachu Weird how it's controversial when the definition is so simple: A species is a group of loving things that can naturally interbreed and have fertile offspring. You wouldn't think that would be so "iffY'.

Pikachu

@ChipmunkErnie

Well that's the problem. That definition cannot be consistently applied.

Graylight · 51-55, F

Nothing against a doctoral candidate, but she's still a student.

It's an area of great controversy, too, with no one side demonstrably winning yet. For instance, Nat Geo states animals are still classified as different species due to their habitat needs.

[quote]These naturally occurring wild rule breakers make it difficult for scientists to clearly define species. Genetics may provide the answer. Through genetic analysis, scientists can now classify species through patterns in DNA. This technology has uncovered new relationships between species—and a few unexpected surprises. A recent genetic analysis revealed that giraffes—long thought to be one species—are actually four distinct species. Discoveries such as this could lead to conservation concerns, should scientists discover a new endangered species “hiding” in a larger population of similar organisms. [/quote]

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