Re: Species [arbitrary to a degree]

[ELurio@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/22/01 7:33:00 AM, tholtz@geol.umd.edu writes:

<< A check at a good science library will turn up a few (dozen) books and a 
few
(hundred) papers on "the species problem" or "the species concept".  Just to
name a few simple problems with the BSC: under the definition as ELurio
gives it, lions and tigers are members of the same species (ligers are
cross-fertile with tigers, at least), as are grizzlies and polar bears
(which produce fertile 'golden bear' offspring, as was discovered by the
National Zoo after a romantic liason that the workers were wise not to try
and interrupt...). >>

Actually, grizzlies and polar bears ARE probably the same species. Ligers, 
are in fact, "mules,." and are in fact  for the most part infertile. Mules, 
in the traditional sense (horse+donkeys), on rare occasions produce offspring 
too. But they aren't mules.

Then there's the case of the hybrid elephant, which shows that the genus 
"Loxodanta" shouldn't actually exist.

eric l.