PPt Species Concepts (Ex 2)

Question 1

What is a species?

Answer 1

Many different species

Question 2

Morphological Species Concept

Answer 2

Species are groups of individuals that look alike

Question 3

Phylogenetic Species Concept

Answer 3

The smallest set of organisms that share an ancestor and can be distinguished from other such sets

Question 4

Genetic (Molecular) Species Concept

Answer 4

Species are defined by greater frequencies of shared genetic information

Question 5

Ecological Species Concept

Answer 5

A species is a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment

Question 6

Biological Species Concept

Answer 6

1. Ernst Mayr (1995)-species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups
2. Coyne & Orr (2004)-species have substantial but not complete reproductive isolation

Question 7

So which species concept is right?

Answer 7

No one way is “right” - defining a species is largely dependent on both the context and goals of the situation