identifying species

Question 1

morphological species concept

Answer 1

focuses on morphology (body, shape, size, etc.) to decide whether similar organisms represent different species

advantage: simple to use
disadvantage: hard to decide how much difference is too much because all populations are made up of non-identical individuals

Question 2

biological species concept

Answer 2

based on whether 2 organisms can produce viable offspring

advantage: widely used
disadvantage: cannot be applied in all cases (fossil records, asexual reproduction)

Question 3

phylogenic species concept

Answer 3

examine the evolutionary history of organisms. seeing patterns of relationship and seeing when they branch into species

advantage: able to incorporate dna evidence, can be applied to extinct species
disadvantage: evolutionary histories are not known for all species