4 ms·
> They are classified as a single species with the rest of humans because they can interbreed with other humans This is not the standard for, e.g. birds, howev
by wnoise 7y ago
> They are classified as a single species with the rest of humans because they can interbreed with other humans
This is not the standard for, e.g. birds, however. Consider the mallard. It's happy to breed (with fertile offspring) with just about any duck. However the ornithology community does not say "great, they're all ducks, maybe with separate subspecies". Instead they complain about "genetic pollution" wiping out species of ducks through genetic drift.
Myself, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to call these subspecies and keep the Biological Species Concept[1], but in actual usage the Biological Species concept is dead.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_concept#Mayr.27s_Biological_Species_Concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_concept#Mayr.27s_Biolo...
- lazyier 7y agoIn the past the rules for 'species' was not whether or not they will interbreed, but whether or not their offspring would be fertile. A horse and a donkey can breed just fine, but a mule cannot. This makes sense because we know that species eventually differentiate and whether or not they can recombine is a good indication of how far apart that separation is. But nowadays all that stuff is thrown out of the window. I don't really understand why it is no longer considered a useful distinction.
- catalogia 7y ago> A mule cannot [breed]. That's almost always true, but isn't an absolute. There are documented cases of fertile mare mules: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule#Fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule#Fertility
- ummonk 7y agoThe Hawaiian duck isn't racist enough in choosing mates so now conservationists want to bring back more genetically pure Hawaiian ducks through selective breeding. It's rather ridiculous.