2 ms·
You'd have to very closely define what precisely you meant by the word 'species', and go from there. It's a surprisingly slippery thing to do. Even the common
by Baeocystin 7y ago
You'd have to very closely define what precisely you meant by the word 'species', and go from there. It's a surprisingly slippery thing to do.
Even the commonly-accepted 'can have viable offspring together' isn't as cut-and-dried as you might think: https://www.sciencealert.com/darwin-s-finches-evolve-into-new-species-in-real-time-two-generations-galapagos https://www.sciencealert.com/darwin-s-finches-evolve-into-ne...
More looking at edge-case compatibility between germlines, in this case modern human vs. neanderthal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbreeding_between_archaic_and_modern_humans#Neanderthals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbreeding_between_archaic_...
- matt_kantor 7y agoRing species (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species) also throw an interesting wrench into the "viable offspring" definition.