Species concepts

Question 1

biological species concept

Answer 1

defines a species as members of a population that potentially inbreed in nature - NOT according to similarity in appearance

Question 2

limitation with biological species concenpt

Answer 2

1. asexual organisms are not very well accounted for as well as hybrids that are produced
2. Potential interbreeding - how do you draw the line?
3. ring species; they all interbreed but extreme points don’t How do we draw the speciation line?
4. Chronospecies; how can we consider them different species?

Question 3

Lineage species concept

Answer 3

defines species as grouops of organisms taht share a pattern of ancestry and descent, which form a single branch on a tree of life.

Question 4

Limitations of lineage species concept

Answer 4

1. difficult to apply to long-extinct species to get DNA

Question 5

Morphological species concept

Answer 5

used when extinct fossilised species are found with degraded DNA. It relys mainly on the morphology of the organisms. When morphology is different enough, organisms are classified as different speices

Question 6

Limitations with morphological species concept

Answer 6

1. morphology is typically very misleading - convergent evolution and analogous structrues
2. lack of DNA evidence
3. only used when other species concepts cannot apply

Question 7

Linking concepts

Answer 7

all concepts aren’t mutually exclusive so multiple concepts can be used together to define species boundaries

Question 8

Naming species

Answer 8

linneas developed the binomial nomenclature - each species is given 2 word names (binomial) the first word being the generic name of the genus, the second based on specific epithet

Question 9

Modern naming guidlines

Answer 9

today scientists follow ICZN (Internation code of zoological nomenclature) OR ICN for Fungi, algae, and Plants
* uses strict latinized naming