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It sounds like they're evolving into separate species. Indeed it's one definition of a species that it's a population that can mate within it's group. So if th
by loa_in_ 6y ago
It sounds like they're evolving into separate species.
Indeed it's one definition of a species that it's a population that can mate within it's group. So if they can no longer breed with each other, are they same species or not?
- pcl 6y agoRing species are a weird and fascinating corner case of that definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species
- gumby 6y agoBefore the invention of radio this was a property of language as well. Famously you could walk from Paris to Rome and every village could speak comfortably and naturally with its neighbors, yet by the time you got to Rome they spoke a language essentially incomprehensible to Parisians.
- monkeycantype 6y ago30 yrs ago, I rode my bike from East Berlin to Amsterdam, hopping from tiny village to tiny village. I kept out of cities so I could sleep in the forest at night and it seemed as if the the local dialect drifted town by town from deutsch to dutch
- jacquesm 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German
- nl 6y agoAnd heading North: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages
- gumby 6y agoThat’s a good example! I remember being on a train where a woman was reading a book in Dutch to her kids and my then 5 year old son (a German speaker) walked over to sit behind her and listen.
- rcollyer 6y agoThey do breed with each other: a-males mate with b-females, and vice versa, where a/b is the new sex gene.
- geofft 6y agoIf I'm reading right, the two groups can only breed with each other. That is, white-striped males and tan-striped females can breed, as can white-striped females and tan-striped males. (And the offspring are about half white-striped and half tan-striped.) So it's not speciation, any more than sexes themselves are speciation.
- jwilk 6y ago> white-striped males and tan-striped females can breed, as can white-striped females and tan-striped males This alone doesn't contradict the two-species theory. It could be that white-M + tan-F is species #1, and white-F + tan-M is species #2. Sure, it sounds weird, but not nearly as weird as the idea of 4 sexes, IMO. > (And the offspring are about half white-striped and half tan-striped.) Now, this is the important part. As I understand it, the offspring of "species #1" could be "species #2" or the other way round. This indicates that #1 and #2 are the same species after all.
- bregma 6y agoJust wait until you learn about the sex life of hexaploid species... an offspring needs parents of at least 3 different sexes.
- AtomicOrbital 6y agoa good book which discusses species with over a dozen sexes read Matt Ridley The Red Queen
- ralfd 6y agoWhat species ist that?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- solidsnack9000 6y agoI thought so at first, but no... The two different "species" only mate with each other.
- rsynnott 6y agoIf the tan ones could only mate with the tan ones, that would work. As it is, though, no. A white male and tan female can have a tan chick that can go on to mate with a white bird (indeed must, if it mates at all). That’s not speciation.