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Author Topic:   Reproductive Viability as a definition of "kind"
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1467 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 5 of 20 (153503)
10-27-2004 8:26 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by happy_atheist
10-27-2004 4:56 PM


Alternatively, are there any other problems to using this as a definition of kind?
Other than the fact that we see subpopulations become nonreproductive with other populations all the time?
We use the interfertility criteria as the definition of "species." The big problem is that we see new species all the time, so if kind = species, we're seeing new kinds all the time, too.
It's the only definition of "kind" that has any basis in biological reality, so in that sense, it's a great definition. Your friend will come to regret using it, however, because it's very clear that, under that definition, we see new "kinds" all the time.

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 Message 1 by happy_atheist, posted 10-27-2004 4:56 PM happy_atheist has not replied

  
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1467 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 10 of 20 (153786)
10-28-2004 4:28 PM
Reply to: Message 9 by happy_atheist
10-28-2004 3:01 PM


. It is obvious that the ring species used to be able to breed, but genetic decay now prevents them.
So, new kinds then?
Or, they're all still in the same kind, because of their common ancestry? Hrm, how far might one go with that? It might very well turn out that all existing organisms are in the same kind, because they're all the decendants of an original population that was able to interbreed.

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 Message 9 by happy_atheist, posted 10-28-2004 3:01 PM happy_atheist has not replied

  
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