The basic unit of taxonomic classification.
Questions about identifying an unknown species should not use this tag and instead should use the species-identification tag.
Questions tagged [species]
177 questions
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How could humans have interbred with Neanderthals if we're a different species?
To be clear, I'm not doubting that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis did interbreed: of that much I'm convinced.
Within the past few years I've seen an upcropping of pop-sci articles discussing the interbreeding between pre-historic species of…
Dave Kennedy
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Does it make sense to classify all humans in a single species?
For what biological reasons do we consider that all human beings belong to the same species?
A Thai and a Nigerian share a common ancestor that is 140,000 years old (see Gravel et al. 2010 and this post). Would, for example, a mixed Thai - Nigerian…
Remi.b
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Have we ever observed two drosophila lineages that evolved reproductive isolation in labs?
Background
The standard definition of species refers to the concept of reproductive isolation. If two lineages are found to be reproductively isolated, then we consider these two lineages to belong to different species. My question concerns evolved…
Remi.b
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Identify this insect, found in Central Vietnam, with long antennae, black wings, and red body
Last year this insect landed on my hand when visiting the My Son city ruins in Central Vietnam.
I've been trying to identify the insect, but until now without result.
Can you help me? Or do you know who could?
SiTan
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Where can I get a file/list of the common and scientific names of species?
I am searching for an un-encoded data file with common and scientific names for example of a few hundred species or tens of thousands, where I can search the common and scientific labels of organisms.
bandybabboon
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Is the size of the genome across species roughly the same?
Chromosome number differs across species.
Is the amount of DNA comparable between organisms, just being split into smaller chunks in those species with more chromosomes, or do species have different genome sizes? If so, does the genome size…
Thaina
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What is the term for "technical extinction" of yet alive animals?
What is the term for an event in which a species is still alive, but has no chance of future reproduction and the species will be considered extinct once the current generation dies out?
For example a species of a tiger that has the last 5 surviving…
Koffeehaus
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Do ring species exist?
In trying to understand evolution better, I have been looking at examples of speciation, and have thus come across the topic of ring species. I have tried to find concrete examples of how these work, but have been unable to. This paper deals with…
Niobius
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Acknowledging differentiation of species, in historical times
This is at least partly an historical question, and I am not even remotely a biologist of any sort, so apologies beforehand if it's a little obscure.
I often wonder how many distinctions were made in pre-Renaissance times, between species of…
Engineer
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Can scientists name themselves in the scientific name when they discover a new taxon?
There are sometimes people names in taxonomy, like Myotis keenii was names after Mr. Keen who contributed to discover the species. So, if you discover a species and someone else is constructing the scientific name and names you, it's clear. But when…
Tomas
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Why can't we call dog breeds different species?
I understand this question might fall into opinion based, but I'm trying to write it so that it meets the "Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience" part and not get closed.
A closed creationist question about…
user137
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Are there species that occupy several roles in the food hierarchy?
Are there species that occupy several roles in the food hierarchy?
By role, I am referring to producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, quaternary consumer and so on.
Examples of more specific questions
Are there species…
random user
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Examples of animals with 12-28 legs?
Many commonly known animals' limbs usually number between 0 and 10. For example, a non-exhaustive list:
snakes have 0
Members of Bipedidae have 2 legs. Birds and humans have 2 legs (but 4 limbs)
Most mammals, reptiles, amphibians have 4…
theforestecologist
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Can someone tell me the species of this lizard?
It's a green lizard with a silver tail, and it has pretty, bluish eyes. I saw it today, July 26th, trying to get some shade on a hot, sunny day (32 degrees) at around 18:00 in Austin, TX USA. It's been hot and dry here the past few weeks, but it…
Benji A.
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Reasons why living fossils exist?
A living fossil is a living species (or clade) that
appears to be similar to another species otherwise known only from fossils,
typically with no close living relatives.
A living fossil is considered as a successful organism, which has made…
Jayachandran
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