Year 11 - Pre-Diploma Biology

THE MEANING OF SPECIES

The accompanying article from the New Scientist, Hybridisation Rules OK! by Martin Brookes, though now dated (April 1996), is still very valid. He discusses the problems facing biologists when trying to define a species. The argument centres around a definition based upon reproductively isolated organisms, or a definition based upon organisms which share common features and behaviour. Read and then refer to the article to answer the questions. The conventional, present-day understanding of what we mean by species is given in lines 7, 8 & 9. Q.1 What is that definition?

The definition of a species is the group of individuals who have the ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
As a definition it is quickly destroyed by the reference to Blue Whales and Fin Whales (lines 9-17). Q.2 How do these two species contest the conventional definition?

The Blue Whale and the Fin whales species contradicts the conventional definition because they can breed with each other in order to produce fertile offspring without the necessity of being from the same species.
In the 3rd paragraph (lines 18-37), the two concepts of what a species is, are compared. Q.3 (i) What was the species concept prior to the 1930s? Prior 1930s species were considered just different kinds of living things but there was a problem with defining their differences, how they were different. (ii) Although not named in the text, who do you think was the greatest advocate of this concept?

Q.4 What was/is the species concept introduced by Dobzhansky and Mayr in the 1930s? Prior 1930s species concept was just different kinds of living things but there was a problem with defining different Q.5 Darwin was not particularly concerned by the concept of a species. Why not?

Darwin had any problem by the concept of species due to the fact that he did not consider species real entities the other way he saw them as artificial collections of individuals made for convenience. Because he saw individuals were the units of his new theory of evolution, not species. Q.6 Given the probable several million of mostly tiny organisms not yet described on this planet, what problems face a natural historian who thinks s/he has found, and wants to name a new species? (Lines 53-63) Organisms can not be yet described as an new species until they have demonstrated with whom it can mate with and due to the fact there are million of other species existing this task is pointless and impossible. Q.7 What do you understand by the term sub-species? (Line 70) A subspecies is a small group belonging to the same big species group but it owns with different characteristics. Q.8 Organisms may differ or be similar in their morphology, anatomy and DNA (line 74), and their ..? Also their breeding groups. The variation in beaks of the 13 (sub?) species of Darwins finches on Galpagos are cited as a good example of natural selection working to make groups of birds distinct one from another, rather than reproductive isolation (lines 83-98). Q.9 Explain the argument being used.

Darwin explains that the cause of the species remaining different is due to natural selection not to reproductive isolation, this species owns different characteristics as shapes of beaks which helps them adapt to their environment. Q.10 (i) Why do hybridising species challenge the conventional BSC? (Lines 99-113)

These species were ignored as they were considered aberrant and dont meet with the requirement of being species as cohesive, reproductive units. (ii) And why is the US Endangered Species Act (1973) a problem for taxonomists? (Lines 119-120)

(iii)

Because they exclude hybrids from legal protection, as they see them as not part of the natural order Red wolves and coyotes are known to have hybridised (lines 126-129). Can you name another two species who can successfully hybridise? Humans, Blue whale and Fin whales, and Orangutans. Darwinian evolution theory focuses very much upon species and clusters of related individuals (lines 156-157). Q.11 What therefore is the evolving unit in Darwinian evolution theory?

Species owning different characteristics should be considered different species.

Q.12 Selection forces act upon the small cluster of related individuals but specifically, and in genetic terms, what is it that is being selected for or against?

Superior and dominant species are the ones selected.

Q.13 Given this discussion, what would now be your best definition of a species?

Species is a group of individuals which own different characteristics but similar DNA, anatomy, and morphology, they can mate with each other to give a fertile offspring.
Q.14 What is the fundamental event in the DNA of an organism that ultimately can enable evolution of a new organism with different characteristics to appear?

Organisms bond together making new characteristics in their offspring allowing evolution.
Q.15 For one organism, give a full classification (from Kingdom to species), saying at each point of classification, what characteristics enable the grouping of the organism. Black Bears: Ursus, americanus Kingdom: Animal Phylum: Chrdata Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theria Infraclass: Eutheria Order: Carnivora Suborder: Fissipedia Family: Ursidae Subfamily: Ursinae Genus: Ursus Subgenus: Euarctos Species: Americanus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear

John Osborne February 2014