Species

In biology, the most commonly used definition of species was first coined by Ernst Mayr. Species are "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups" (however, see other definitions of species below).

External links

• http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/S/Speciation.html
• 2003-12-31, ScienceDaily: Working On The 'Porsche Of Its Time': New Model For Species Determination Offered Quote: "...two species of dinosaur that are members of the same genera varied from each other by just 2.2 percent. Translation of the percentage into an actual number results in an average of just three skeletal differences out of the total 338 bones in the body. Amazingly, 58 percent of these differences occurred in the skull alone. "This is a lot less variation than I'd expected", said Novak..."
• 2003-08-08, ScienceDaily: Cross-species Mating May Be Evolutionarily Important And Lead To Rapid Change, Say Indiana University Researchers Quote: "...the sudden mixing of closely related species may occasionally provide the energy to impel rapid evolutionary change..."
• 2004-01-09 ScienceDaily: Mayo Researchers Observe Genetic Fusion Of Human, Animal Cells; May Help Explain Origin Of AIDS Quote: "...The researchers have discovered conditions in which pig cells and human cells can fuse together in the body to yield hybrid cells that contain genetic material from both species... "What we found was completely unexpected", says Jeffrey Platt, M.D."
• 2000-09-18, ScienceDaily: Scientists Unravel Ancient Evolutionary History Of Photosynthesis Quote: "...gene-swapping was common among ancient bacteria early in evolution..."
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry