“Species”

On the thread entitled “Species Kinds”, commenter phoodoo asks:

What’s the definition of a species?

A simple question but hard to answer. Talking of populations of interbreeding individuals immediately creates problems when looking at asexual organisms, especially the prokaryotes: bacteria and archaea. How to delineate a species temporally is also problematic. Allan Miller links to an excellent basic resource on defining a species and the Wikipedia entry does not shy away from the difficulties.

In case phoodoo thought his question was being ignored, I thought I’d open this thread to allow discussion without derailing the thread on “kinds”.

1,428 thoughts on ““Species”

  1. fifthmonarchyman: Says who exactly?
    Yes and the genetics and history we think we know don’t quite match what we see when we categorize them.

    What who sees? And what makes you suppose that we only “think we know”?
    and how do we know they share a recent genetic history? Because they are similar of course
    Do you suppose that members of a species don’t share a recent genetic history? What is your alternative explanation for that similarity?

    How do you know?

    I know species change because they are observed to change. Are you saying that no new variation occurs within species, or are you saying that none of that variation ever spreads? Is it your belief that differences among population of a species (subspecies, they’re often called) stretch back to the creation? If you would at some point clearly explain what you think is true, rather than just pouring piss on evolutionary biology, that would help me understand you better. If you care.

    species aren’t agents or forces they don’t “generate” anything

    No such implication was intended. Please excuse me. My point was that speciation happens. Do you disagree?

    I don’t grant your definition it’s simply untenable and causes harm to our conversation efforts.

    Did you actually mean “conversation”, or did you intend “conservation”. If the latter, you have never explained how it causes harm.

    How does your definition of species work in practice, particularly for conservation? What is that definition, for that matter? How do you know your definition is the correct one?

    I think what you should be doing is asking how your definition fits the facts we are discussing.

    Fits pretty well, in general. It appears, based on your quote, to fit the “coywolf” pretty well. It fits Panthera very well too. And it fits Homo. I don’t think it fits the red wolf, but you can’t have everything. Is there any other species we were discussing? The older a divergence is, on average, the better the genetic isolation. Reinforcement in sympatry can also promote isolation. Of course species can also coalesce when the conditions promoting isolation change, if not too much time has passed. I think of the American black duck, which may be getting submerged into mallards.

  2. dazz: ID is meaningless crap

    Baseless words…induced by impotence to prove it…

    I can say the same thing about evolution…and the only way to prove me wrong is not something that anybody can do… Entiendes? 😉

  3. J-Mac: the only way to prove me wrong is not something that anybody can do… Entiendes?

    not realmente. I’ll need some giggling help from Muttley

  4. J-Mac: Until then…Or… we both know..until never…

    Farewell my amigo, in the mean time, here’s some documented evidence of evolution, otherwise known as evorolling

  5. fifth:

    Because it is not even remotely true that what lies in the boundaries of a species is a species.

    LOL. That’s a keeper.

  6. fifth,

    When you find yourself making an argument as inane as this…

    Because it is not even remotely true that what lies in the boundaries of a species is a species.

    …isn’t it time to take a break, ponder your place in God’s plan, and go back to cleaning church toilets?

  7. dazz: Farewell my amigo, in the mean time, here’s some documented evidence of evolution, otherwise known as evorolling

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uSTOHa4Im4

    Since you seem to like fairy-tales, I have a better one for you:

    How life evolved: 10 steps to the first cells

    https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17987-how-life-evolved-10-steps-to-the-first-cells/

    BTW: It should be called 10 mentiras…
    But as someone once said: “No es una mentira… Si usted lo cree”.

  8. J-Mac, to dazz:

    But as someone once said: “No es una mentira… Si usted lo cree”.

    Or if you do it for Jesus.

  9. keiths:
    fifth,

    When you find yourself making an argument as inane as this…

    …isn’t it time to take a break, ponder your place in God’s plan, and go back to cleaning church toilets?

    Dick.

  10. J-Mac: I can say the same thing about evolution…and the only way to prove me wrong is not something that anybody can do… Entiendes?

    It is not that complicated, just come up with a better explanation than the word design. You don’t have to falsify anything.

  11. 381 New Species Discovered in the Amazon

    https://www.ecowatch.com/species-discovered-amazon-2479945212.html

    Pink dolphins, a monkey with an orange tail, a stingray with patterned skin…But now how do they know they are new species?

    Do they already know these dolphins can’t mate with other dolphins? The monkeys can’t mate with other monkeys? Who is willing to bet that they don’t know this?

    Keiths should be up in arms-these scientists don’t even know what species means! Come to think of it, nobody knows what it means. I think maybe it just means they look different.

    Why are Lucky Accidenters so imprecise keiths?

  12. keiths:

    fifth,

    When you find yourself making an argument as inane as this…

    Because it is not even remotely true that what lies in the boundaries of a species is a species.

    …isn’t it time to take a break, ponder your place in God’s plan, and go back to cleaning church toilets?

    newton:

    Dick.

    Yes, he’s that too. See John’s comment:

    Why do you end every post with “peace” when what comes before is so combative, not to say dickish?

    And Allan’s response:

    A keeper from some time back (to someone else):

    “Do you kiss Darwin with that mouth?

    peace”

  13. Perhaps fifth will heed Paul’s advice to the Romans, though I doubt it:

    Humble Service in the Body of Christ

    3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

    Romans 12:3-8, NIV

    Since fifth is clearly a liability to the faith in any kind of a public role, as his record here attests, perhaps he will swallow his pride and accept a more humble role behind the scenes, where he will do less damage.

  14. J-Mac,
    Is it really so difficult to see the difference between the comments on each side? Look at the output from phoodoo, Mung and yourself. It’s mostly just sniping. And on the other side? People are explaining stuff to you.

    Don’t you find it odd that, for example, Mung starts a thread on the evidence for common descent then in that thread notes he’s not read Theobald?

    Don’t you find it odd that FMM goes on about how current definitions of species are harming conservation efforts but then cannot provide an alternatrive definiton that can actually be used?

    Don’t you see you are all lacking the basics to be even be able to have a useful conversation?

    J-Mac: Since you seem to like fairy-tales, I have a better one for you:

    And yet that fairy-tale is better then anything you’ve provided so far! As in you’ve provided nothing so far. You have literally nothing that rises to the level of that pop-sci article as to how it really happened.

  15. OMagain: Don’t you find it odd that FMM goes on about how current definitions of species are harming conservation efforts but then cannot provide an alternatrive definiton that can actually be used?

    What? here once again is the definition that everyone but darwinists use

    quote:
    species- a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; specifically : a logical division of a genus or more comprehensive class
    end quote:

    from here

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/species

    peace

    What’s wrong with that one? Why can’t it be used?

    peace

  16. keiths: When you find yourself making an argument as inane as this…

    calling an argument inane is not the same thing as demonstrating it’s inane.

    Why don’t you do the former?
    You know like I did with your “by your logic New York city is not real” argument

    peace

  17. newton,

    It’s pretty predictable when it comes to keiths.

    Throw enough crap around and maybe people will forget about what we were just talking about 😉

    peace

  18. fifthmonarchyman,

    So where’s God drawn the boundary? Mean high water mark on a calm day? Between High and Low? Fuzzy, like the boundaries of atoms?

    It doesn’t strike me that God is taking the same interest in the minute detail of ‘boundaries’ that we do, just because you find a Bible passage with the word ‘boundaries’ in it.

    Book Of Allan Chap 2 v1: “And lo, Allan said: OK, this line in the sand is just a rough guide. Obviously, it’s fractal, and changes minutely due to atomic resonance and tidal effects of the sun. So … oh, do what you like, I’m off to the pub. Just don’t overthink this, is all I’m saying. God out”.

  19. newton: It is not that complicated, just come up with a better explanation than the word design. You don’t have to falsify anything.

    How about this one I’ve been kicking around?

    the product of a nonrandom non-algorithmic process

    I think that one would be falsifiable what do you think?

    peace

  20. Allan Miller: So where’s God drawn the boundary?

    that is what we should be trying to discover

    you know “thinking God’s thoughts after him” and all that

    Allan Miller: It doesn’t strike me that God is taking the same interest in the minute detail of ‘boundaries’ that we do, just because you find a Bible passage with the word ‘boundaries’ in it.

    If God is interested is something as trivial as numbering the hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30) I’m sure he is interested in the boundaries that effect the lives of large numbers of people.

    peace

  21. fifthmonarchyman,

    that is what we should be trying to discover

    you know “thinking God’s thoughts after him” and all that

    That’s what you do. You think that God cares as minutely as you do in argument where to draw the exact boundary of that place we call ‘Manhattan’. How do you know God would not just say ‘please yourself’?

    If God is interested is something as trivial as numbering the hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30) I’m sure he is interested in the boundaries that effect the lives of large numbers of people.

    Come off it. The lives of large numbers of people are not affected by whether you choose to use high, low or mean water mark as the boundary.

  22. fifth,

    If God is interested is something as trivial as numbering the hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30) I’m sure he is interested in the boundaries that effect the lives of large numbers of people.

    He certainly hasn’t shown much interest in helping the people of southeast Texas, upon whom he has been showering his underwhelming “love”.

  23. John Harshman: Do you suppose that members of a species don’t share a recent genetic history? What is your alternative explanation for that similarity?

    no I’m sure they do. I just would be a little more humble in thinking that we know precisely what the history is

    John Harshman: If the latter, you have never explained how it causes harm.

    I linked to an article and I quoted from the article repeatedly. I’m not sure what else I can do

    John Harshman: How does your definition of species work in practice, particularly for conservation?

    Well for one thing it does not make inbreeding more likely by excluding automatically Bison from conservation efforts if they have a scintilla of bovine DNA and it does not withhold protection from the red wolf just because it does not meet some stupid standard of darwinian purity

    I could go on

    John Harshman: What is that definition, for that matter? How do you know your definition is the correct one?

    see above.

    Just like we do with any definition we see if it works for what it is intended to do.

    John Harshman: Fits pretty well, in general. It appears

    Sure works pretty well until it doesn’t if you squint hard enough any definition will work.

    John Harshman: I don’t think it fits the red wolf, but you can’t have everything.

    Generally when we find that a definition does not work we modify the definition instead of writing off an entire keystone species with a shrug of the shoulders.

    peace

  24. John Harshman,

    I think of the American black duck, which may be getting submerged into mallards.

    This is particularly relevant to the whole point IMO. fmm thinks we don’t conserve species we ‘should’ conserve because we have a faulty species concept, and we should use God’s, which fmm has on good authority is close to his own.

    In reality, nothing much (beyond finite resources) is stopping us conserving that which we wish to conserve – from rare breed sheep through to ‘true’ species. But there is a particular problem in the case of certain species that aren’t biologically isolated. If the species (singular or plural) from which it derived are still around, it might simply require too much effort to maintain the threatened variety. One would have to prevent matings. Biological species do this all by themselves. In domestic animals, we can exert some control. But in the wild, we need to have at least some knowledge of how ‘the wild’ works. It’s not a matter of judgements of ‘Darwinian purity’ (what a particularly ridiculous notion) but of biological reality.

  25. fifthmonarchyman: quote:
    species- a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; specifically : a logical division of a genus or more comprehensive class
    end quote:

    from here

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/species

    peace

    What’s wrong with that one? Why can’t it be used?

    For starters, it does not account for cryptic species with different karyotypes, which tended to mess up captive breeding programs:

    Back in the 1970s and 1980s, many dik diks were imported into zoos in North America. These dik diks all looked similar, and exactly what locations these animals came from and if they were the same species or subspecies was not known. When zookeepers started to notice that there were issues with reproduction, it was decided that it was important to look at their chromosomes.
    So a large study was started and 127 animals were karyotyped (a karyotype is a chromosomal map). It was discovered that there were two species in the North American zoo populations: the Günther’s dik dik Madoqua guentheri and the Kirk’s dik dik Madoqua kirkii. The Günther’s dik dik we studied was found to have a Robertsonian translocation (a chromosomal rearrangement where two chromosomes are joined), which meant they had a chromosome number ranging from 48 to 50. The Kirk’s dik dik was more complex. We found four different subspecies, and each had a different-looking karyotype (named cytotypes A–D).
    So how does this impact reproduction in zoo dik diks? It was discovered that there were Günther’s dik diks and Kirk’s dik diks that were housed together, and they would have hybrid offspring that were sterile. In addition, when some of the different cytotypes (subspecies, cytotype A and B) were housed together, their male offspring were also sterile. This was why there was a decline in reproduction in the dik dik. To correct this trend, we needed to work with the studbook keeper to make sure all the dik diks were karyotyped and correctly identified and then housed together by species or subspecies.

  26. fifthmonarchyman: quote:
    species- a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; specifically : a logical division of a genus or more comprehensive class
    end quote:

    from here

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/species

    peace

    What’s wrong with that one? Why can’t it be used?

    For starters, it cannot handle cryptic species with different karyotypes, such as occur in some captive breeding programs:

    Back in the 1970s and 1980s, many dik diks were imported into zoos in North America. These dik diks all looked similar, and exactly what locations these animals came from and if they were the same species or subspecies was not known. When zookeepers started to notice that there were issues with reproduction, it was decided that it was important to look at their chromosomes.
    So a large study was started and 127 animals were karyotyped (a karyotype is a chromosomal map). It was discovered that there were two species in the North American zoo populations: the Günther’s dik dik Madoqua guentheri and the Kirk’s dik dik Madoqua kirkii. The Günther’s dik dik we studied was found to have a Robertsonian translocation (a chromosomal rearrangement where two chromosomes are joined), which meant they had a chromosome number ranging from 48 to 50. The Kirk’s dik dik was more complex. We found four different subspecies, and each had a different-looking karyotype (named cytotypes A–D).
    So how does this impact reproduction in zoo dik diks? It was discovered that there were Günther’s dik diks and Kirk’s dik diks that were housed together, and they would have hybrid offspring that were sterile. In addition, when some of the different cytotypes (subspecies, cytotype A and B) were housed together, their male offspring were also sterile. This was why there was a decline in reproduction in the dik dik. To correct this trend, we needed to work with the studbook keeper to make sure all the dik diks were karyotyped and correctly identified and then housed together by species or subspecies.

  27. fifthmonarchyman: How about this one I’ve been kicking around?

    the product of a nonrandom non-algorithmic process

    I think that one would be falsifiable what do you think?

    peace

    It would depend on what the supporting evidence was.

  28. fifthmonarchyman:
    newton,

    It’s pretty predictable when it comes to keiths.

    Throw enough crap around and maybe people will forget about what we were just talking about

    peace

    He is not alone in that, I just prefer a little more effort when it comes to insults.Church toilets seemed too random

  29. phoodoo: Keiths should be up in arms-these scientists don’t even know what species means! Come to think of it, nobody knows what it means. I think maybe it just means they look different.

    I expect their logic for the claim is in writing somewhere

  30. newton: It is not that complicated, just come up with a better explanation than the word design. You don’t have to falsify anything.

    If evolutionist use the word design to describe things that they believe evolved, give me one reason why should I come up with better word? The word design often is the best testimony in itself… How about creation? Will this do?

    …Craig Venter’s creation comes as CRISPR gene-editing methods … life to its bare essentials and, by extension, to design. life from scratch."

    If Craign Veter designs and creates life from scratch, is it going to be called EVOLVED???

  31. J-Mac:
    Are finches with bigger beak different species than the finches with small beak?
    If yes, please provide evidence why…
    If not, please provide evidence why…

    Nobody knows? Or everyone is afraid to comment?

  32. fmm to keiths:

    fifthmonarchyman: If those aren’t your actual arguments,
    You have done an amazing job of disguising your actual arguments.

    It’s not an analogy! A city is not analogous to a species!

  33. J-Mac: Whatever suits evolution…

    The Lucky Accidenters Club isn’t choosy. Just don’t ask too many questions.

    I guess it is a lot like Scientology.

  34. keiths, you’re welcome to come over to the side of Jesus. He needs you. WE need you. You won’t even have to start off cleaning toilets.

    Though there’s no guarantee that’s not where you’ll end up. 🙂

    Come to Jesus keiths.

  35. keiths: He certainly hasn’t shown much interest in helping the people of southeast Texas, upon whom he has been showering his underwhelming “love”.

    keiths turns a blind eye to the outpouring of love to help those in need.

  36. J-Mac: If evolutionist use the word design to describe things that they believe evolved, give me one reason why should I come up with better word?

    It is a good word, now what was designed, when was it designed, how was it designed?

    The word design often is the best testimony in itself… How about creation? Will this do?

    Better, what was created, when was it created, how was it created?

  37. Mung: keiths turns a blind eye to the outpouring of love to help those in need.

    Those who would not be in need if God has chosen otherwise, miracles abound in biology, why not weather? If Harvey had stalled in the Gulf , it would have been a miracle

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