“Biologic species” does not have a satisfactory definition. Most often “species” is defined as “the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction”. The fertility “barrier” is however arbitrary, inadequate for closely related species, and irrelevant to the vast group of asexually reproducing organisms. Since organisms do […]
Several sources reported on the recent “New trends in evolutionary biology” meeting at The Royal Society. We learn that the 50 years old “Modern Synthesis” needs to be “Extended”. As shown elsewhere, epigenetics argues for a sort of Lamarckism, but in the end both Darwin and Lamarck proposed only “just so” stories, rather that useful […]
“Shaking up the Tree of Life” – http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6314/817 Reproductive isolation was, until recently, part of the classic definition of a species. But this definition never worked, first because various species like Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens can mate and birth fertile descendants, and second because this definition left out all nonsexual reproducing organisms. What is not […]