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Guenon Monkeys Cross Species Boundary
- doombolt 8y agoMany many species pairs only have pre-zygote isolation[1], meaning they could have common offspring but avoid doing so, as such mixed offspring would be at disadvantage. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_isolation#Pre-copulatory_mechanisms_in_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_isolation#Pre-cop...
- lolc 8y agoThat's how the species count goes down without any going extinct.
- dredmorbius 8y agoActually true, even amongst dinosaurs. Jack Horner is decreasing species counts: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kQa11RMCeSI https://youtube.com/watch?v=kQa11RMCeSI
- lolc 8y agoThat's a great talk, thanks for pointing it out.
- EGreg 8y agoI thought “species” meant their offspring was not going to be fertile, such as mules for example. So how can they use this term “species”, isn’t it a contradiction? So they are NOT distinct species, then? Like dogs?
- ben_w 8y agoThat’s the simple definition. Unfortunately there are enough edge cases that it doesn’t work very well. This, ring species, asexual reproduction, the small number of fertile mules: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2290491.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2290491.stm
- Someone 8y agoSpecies do not exist, but are a useful concept, anyways. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species, linked from there, also may be educational for you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters#Biology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters#Biology also may be a good starting point.
- matz1 8y agoThese are analogous to classification error in machine learning, It maybe not be possible to achieve 0% error rate.
- phkahler 8y ago"There’s a lot of promiscuity taking place in Gombe National Park. Red-tails are mating with blues, blues are mating with red-tails, blues are mating with blues, red-tails are mating with red-tails, and hybrids are mating with everyone?" Replace "Red-tails" and "blues" with black, white, asian, hispanic, etc... and quickly you see that the definition os "species" is pretty ill-defined. There are evolutionary benefits to isolating into groups, and there are benefits to cross-breeding between those groups.
- jhbadger 8y agoOften the issue isn't two organisms can mate and have fertile offspring but whether or not they often do. A species can still be "real" if their gene pool is not shared to a great degree. Yes, wolves, dogs, and coyotes can all interbreed, but there are real behavioral differences due to differing genetics -- their gene pools are not the same.
- gweinberg 8y agoIt may make sense to say two populations should be considered separate species if they are capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring if they almost never do. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. 15% "hybrids" is huge.
- EGreg 8y agoRight, so is this kind of a non-story? They are basically not distinct species, according to the story, so its premise is wrong.
- nyolfen 8y agothe categories were made for man, not man for the categories