Re: Speciies? you gotta be kidding.
[ QUOTE ]
Would it help the debate at all to come to a compromise whereby the idea of species is useful and explanatory but the edges are blurry? In other words, it's hard to actually draw distinct lines at the borders of each species, but the concept describes a very real distinction between animals?
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably the most reasonable thing anyone's (myself included) said in this thread [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
My vigorous defense here comes from the fact that the definition of species I am talking about isn't like, say, the planet one where there's a continuum of sizes and there are really arbitrary boundaries (I know I'm simplifying) but that the criteria we use to classify different species represents a real distinction that is essential to our understanding of evolution.
|