The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of
eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million.[2][3][4] About 14% of these had been described by 2011.[4]
While the definitions given above may seem adequate at first glance, when looked at more closely they represent problematic
species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with
hybridisation, in a
species complex of hundreds of similar
microspecies, and in a
ring species. Also, among organisms that reproduce only
asexually, the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies. Although none of these are entirely satisfactory definitions, and while the concept of species may not be a perfect model of life, it is still a useful tool to scientists and
conservationists for studying life on Earth, regardless of the theoretical difficulties. If species were fixed and clearly distinct from one another, there would be no problem, but
evolutionary processes cause species to change. This obliges
taxonomists to decide, for example, when enough change has occurred to declare that a lineage should be divided into multiple
chronospecies, or when populations have diverged to have enough distinct character states to be described as
cladistic species.
Biologists and taxonomists have made many attempts to define species, beginning from
morphology and moving towards
genetics. Early taxonomists such as Linnaeus had no option but to describe what they saw: this was later formalised as the typological or morphological species concept.
Ernst Mayr emphasised reproductive isolation, but this, like other species concepts, is hard or even impossible to test.[5][6] Later biologists have tried to refine Mayr's definition with the recognition and cohesion concepts, among others.[7] Many of the concepts are quite similar or overlap, so they are not easy to count: the biologist R. L. Mayden recorded about 24 concepts,[8] and the philosopher of science John Wilkins counted 26.[5] Wilkins further grouped the species concepts into seven basic kinds of concepts: (1)
agamospecies for asexual organisms (2) biospecies for reproductively isolated sexual organisms (3)
ecospecies based on ecological niches (4) evolutionary species based on lineage (5) genetic species based on gene pool (6) morphospecies based on form or phenotype and (7) taxonomic species, a species as determined by a taxonomist.[9]
Typological or morphological species
A typological species is a group of organisms in which individuals conform to certain fixed properties (a type), so that even pre-literate people often recognise the same taxon as do modern taxonomists.[11][12] The clusters of variations or phenotypes within specimens (such as longer or shorter tails) would differentiate the species. This method was used as a "classical" method of determining species, such as with Linnaeus, early in evolutionary theory. However, different phenotypes are not necessarily different species (e.g. a four-winged Drosophila born to a two-winged mother is not a different species). Species named in this manner are called morphospecies.[13][14]
In the 1970s,
Robert R. Sokal, Theodore J. Crovello and
Peter Sneath proposed a variation on the morphological species concept, a
phenetic species, defined as a set of organisms with a similar
phenotype to each other, but a different phenotype from other sets of organisms.[15] It differs from the morphological species concept in including a numerical measure of distance or similarity to cluster entities based on multivariate comparisons of a reasonably large number of phenotypic traits.[16]
Recognition and cohesion species
A mate-recognition species is a group of sexually reproducing organisms that recognise one another as potential mates.[17][18] Expanding on this to allow for post-mating isolation, a cohesion species is the most inclusive population of individuals having the potential for phenotypic cohesion through intrinsic cohesion mechanisms; no matter whether populations can hybridise successfully, they are still distinct cohesion species if the amount of hybridisation is insufficient to completely mix their respective
gene pools.[19] A further development of the recognition concept is provided by the biosemiotic concept of species.[20]
In
microbiology, genes can move freely even between distantly related bacteria, possibly extending to the whole bacterial domain. As a rule of thumb, microbiologists have assumed that members of
Bacteria or
Archaea with
16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences more similar than 97% to each other need to be checked by
DNA–DNA hybridisation to decide if they belong to the same species.[21] This concept was narrowed in 2006 to a similarity of 98.7%.[22]
The
average nucleotide identity (ANI) method quantifies
genetic distance between entire
genomes, using regions of about 10,000
base pairs. With enough data from genomes of one genus, algorithms can be used to categorize species, as for Pseudomonas avellanae in 2013,[23] and for all sequenced bacteria and archaea since 2020.[24] Observed ANI values among sequences appear to have an "ANI gap" at 85–95%, suggesting that a genetic boundary suitable for defining a species concept is present.[25]
DNA barcoding has been proposed as a way to distinguish species suitable even for non-specialists to use.[26] One of the barcodes is a region of mitochondrial DNA within the gene for
cytochrome c oxidase. A database,
Barcode of Life Data System, contains DNA barcode sequences from over 190,000 species.[27][28] However, scientists such as Rob DeSalle have expressed concern that classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding, which they consider a misnomer, need to be reconciled, as they delimit species differently.[29]Genetic introgression mediated by
endosymbionts and other vectors can further make barcodes ineffective in the identification of species.[30]
Phylogenetic or cladistic species
A phylogenetic or
cladistic species is "the smallest aggregation of populations (sexual) or lineages (asexual) diagnosable by a unique combination of character states in comparable individuals (semaphoronts)".[31] The empirical basis – observed character states – provides the evidence to support hypotheses about evolutionarily divergent lineages that have maintained their hereditary integrity through time and space.[32][33][34][35] Molecular markers may be used to determine diagnostic genetic differences in the nuclear or
mitochondrial DNA of various species.[36][31][37] For example, in a study done on
fungi, studying the nucleotide characters using cladistic species produced the most accurate results in recognising the numerous fungi species of all the concepts studied.[37][38] Versions of the phylogenetic species concept that emphasise monophyly or diagnosability[39] may lead to splitting of existing species, for example in
Bovidae, by recognising old subspecies as species, despite the fact that there are no reproductive barriers, and populations may intergrade morphologically.[40] Others have called this approach
taxonomic inflation, diluting the species concept and making taxonomy unstable.[41] Yet others defend this approach, considering "taxonomic inflation" pejorative and labelling the opposing view as "taxonomic conservatism"; claiming it is politically expedient to split species and recognise smaller populations at the species level, because this means they can more easily be included as
endangered in the
IUCNred list and can attract conservation legislation and funding.[42]
Unlike the biological species concept, a cladistic species does not rely on reproductive isolation – its criteria are independent of processes that are integral in other concepts.[31] Therefore, it applies to asexual lineages.[36][37] However, it does not always provide clear cut and intuitively satisfying boundaries between taxa, and may require multiple sources of evidence, such as more than one polymorphic locus, to give plausible results.[37]
Evolutionary species
An evolutionary species, suggested by
George Gaylord Simpson in 1951, is "an entity composed of organisms which maintains its identity from other such entities through time and over space, and which has its own independent evolutionary fate and historical tendencies".[8][43] This differs from the biological species concept in embodying persistence over time. Wiley and Mayden stated that they see the evolutionary species concept as "identical" to
Willi Hennig's species-as-lineages concept, and asserted that the biological species concept, "the several versions" of the phylogenetic species concept, and the idea that species are of the same kind as higher taxa are not suitable for biodiversity studies (with the intention of estimating the number of species accurately). They further suggested that the concept works for both asexual and sexually-reproducing species.[44] A version of the concept is
Kevin de Queiroz's "General Lineage Concept of Species".[45]
Ecological species
An ecological species is a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment. According to this concept, populations form the discrete phenetic clusters that we recognise as species because the ecological and evolutionary processes controlling how resources are divided up tend to produce those clusters.[46]
Genetic species
A genetic species as defined by Robert Baker and Robert Bradley is a set of genetically isolated interbreeding populations. This is similar to Mayr's Biological Species Concept, but stresses genetic rather than reproductive isolation.[47] In the 21st century, a genetic species could be established by comparing DNA sequences. Earlier, other methods were available, such as comparing
karyotypes (sets of
chromosomes) and
allozymes (
enzyme variants).[48]
In
palaeontology, with only
comparative anatomy (morphology) and
histology[51] from
fossils as evidence, the concept of a
chronospecies can be applied. During
anagenesis (evolution, not necessarily involving branching), some palaeontologists seek to identify a sequence of species, each one derived from the
phyletically extinct one before through continuous, slow and more or less uniform change. In such a time sequence, some palaeontologists assess how much change is required for a morphologically distinct form to be considered a different species from its ancestors.[52][53][54][55]
Viruses have enormous populations, are doubtfully living since they consist of little more than a string of DNA or RNA in a protein coat, and mutate rapidly. All of these factors make conventional species concepts largely inapplicable.[56] A viral
quasispecies is a group of genotypes related by similar mutations, competing within a highly
mutagenic environment, and hence governed by a
mutation–selection balance. It is predicted that a viral quasispecies at a low but
evolutionarily neutral and highly connected (that is, flat) region in the
fitness landscape will outcompete a quasispecies located at a higher but narrower fitness peak in which the surrounding mutants are unfit, "the quasispecies effect" or the "survival of the flattest". There is no suggestion that a viral quasispecies resembles a traditional biological species.[57][58][59] The
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses has since 1962 developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses; this has stabilised viral taxonomy.[60][61][62]
Most modern textbooks make use of
Ernst Mayr's 1942 definition,[63][64] known as the
Biological Species Concept as a basis for further discussion on the definition of species. It is also called a reproductive or isolation concept. This defines a species as[65]
groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.[65]
It has been argued that this definition is a natural consequence of the effect of sexual reproduction on the dynamics of natural selection.[66][67][68][69] Mayr's use of the adjective "potentially" has been a point of debate; some interpretations exclude unusual or artificial matings that occur only in captivity, or that involve animals capable of mating but that do not normally do so in the wild.[65]
It is difficult to define a species in a way that applies to all organisms.[70] The debate about species concepts is called the
species problem.[65][71][72][73] The problem was recognised even in 1859, when Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species:
No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of a species. Generally the term includes the unknown element of a distinct act of creation.[74]
When Mayr's concept breaks down
Many authors have argued that a simple textbook definition, following Mayr's concept, works well for most
multi-celled organisms, but breaks down in several situations:
When scientists do not know whether two morphologically similar groups of organisms are capable of interbreeding; this is the case with all extinct life-forms in
palaeontology, as breeding experiments are not possible.[81]
When
hybridisation permits substantial gene flow between species.[82]
In
ring species, when members of adjacent populations in a widely continuous distribution range interbreed successfully but members of more distant populations do not.[83]
Species identification is made difficult by discordance between molecular and morphological investigations; these can be categorised as two types: (i) one morphology, multiple lineages (e.g.
morphological convergence,
cryptic species) and (ii) one lineage, multiple morphologies (e.g.
phenotypic plasticity, multiple
life-cycle stages).[84] In addition,
horizontal gene transfer (HGT) makes it difficult to define a species.[85] All species definitions assume that an organism acquires its genes from one or two parents very like the "daughter" organism, but that is not what happens in HGT.[86] There is strong evidence of HGT between very dissimilar groups of
prokaryotes, and at least occasionally between dissimilar groups of
eukaryotes,[85] including some
crustaceans and
echinoderms.[87]
The evolutionary biologist
James Mallet concludes that
there is no easy way to tell whether related geographic or temporal forms belong to the same or different species. Species gaps can be verified only locally and at a point of time. One is forced to admit that Darwin's insight is correct: any local reality or integrity of species is greatly reduced over large geographic ranges and time periods.[19]
The botanist
Brent Mishler[88] argued that the species concept is not valid, notably because gene flux decreases gradually rather than in discrete steps, which hampers objective delimitation of species.[89] Indeed, complex and unstable patterns of gene flux have been observed in
cichlidteleosts of the
East African Great Lakes.[90] Wilkins argued that "if we were being true to evolution and the consequent phylogenetic approach to taxa, we should replace it with a 'smallest clade' idea" (a phylogenetic species concept).[91] Mishler and Wilkins [92] and others [93] concur with this approach, even though this would raise difficulties in biological nomenclature. Wilkins cited the ichthyologist
Charles Tate Regan's early 20th century remark that "a species is whatever a suitably qualified biologist chooses to call a species".[91] Wilkins noted that the philosopher
Philip Kitcher called this the "cynical species concept",[94] and arguing that far from being cynical, it usefully leads to an empirical taxonomy for any given group, based on taxonomists' experience.[91] Other biologists have gone further and argued that we should abandon species entirely, and refer to the "Least Inclusive Taxonomic Units" (LITUs),[95] a view that would be coherent with current evolutionary theory.[93]
The species concept is further weakened by the existence of
microspecies, groups of organisms, including many plants, with very little genetic variability, usually forming
species aggregates.[96] For example, the dandelion Taraxacum officinale and the blackberry Rubus fruticosus are aggregates with many microspecies—perhaps 400 in the case of the blackberry and over 200 in the dandelion,[97] complicated by
hybridisation,
apomixis and
polyploidy, making gene flow between populations difficult to determine, and their taxonomy debatable.[98][99][100] Species complexes occur in insects such as Heliconius butterflies,[101] vertebrates such as Hypsiboas treefrogs,[102] and fungi such as the
fly agaric.[103]
Natural
hybridisation presents a challenge to the concept of a reproductively isolated species, as fertile hybrids permit gene flow between two populations. For example, the
carrion crowCorvus corone and the
hooded crowCorvus cornix appear and are classified as separate species, yet they can hybridise where their geographical ranges overlap.[104]
Hybridisation of carrion and hooded crows permits gene flow between 'species'
A
ring species is a connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which can sexually interbreed with adjacent related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential
gene flow between each "linked" population.[105] Such non-breeding, though genetically connected, "end" populations may
co-exist in the same region thus closing the ring. Ring species thus present a difficulty for any species concept that relies on reproductive isolation.[106] However, ring species are at best rare. Proposed examples include the
herring gull–
lesser black-backed gull complex around the North pole, the Ensatina eschscholtzii group of 19 populations of salamanders in America,[107] and the
greenish warbler in Asia,[108] but many so-called ring species have turned out to be the result of misclassification leading to questions on whether there really are any ring species.[109][110][111][112]
Seven "species" of Larus gulls interbreed in a ring around the Arctic.
Opposite ends of the ring: a herring gull (Larus argentatus) (front) and a lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) in Norway
Presumed
evolution of five "species" of greenish warblers around the
Himalayas
Taxonomy and naming
Common and scientific names
The commonly used names for kinds of organisms are often ambiguous: "cat" could mean the domestic cat, Felis catus, or the cat family,
Felidae. Another problem with common names is that they often vary from place to place, so that puma, cougar, catamount, panther, painter and mountain lion all mean Puma concolor in various parts of America, while "panther" may also mean the
jaguar (Panthera onca) of Latin America or the
leopard (Panthera pardus) of Africa and Asia. In contrast, the scientific names of species are chosen to be unique and universal (except for some inter-code
homonyms); they are
in two parts used together: the
genus as in Puma, and the
specific epithet as in concolor.[113][114]
A species is given a
taxonomic name when a
type specimen is described formally, in a publication that assigns it a unique scientific name. The description typically provides means for identifying the new species, which may not be based solely on morphology[115] (see
cryptic species), differentiating it from other previously described and related or confusable species and provides a
validly published name (in botany) or an
available name (in zoology) when the paper is accepted for publication. The type material is usually held in a permanent repository, often the research collection of a major museum or university, that allows independent verification and the means to compare specimens.[116][117][118] Describers of new species are asked to choose names that, in the words of the
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, are "appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence".[119]
Abbreviations
Books and articles sometimes intentionally do not identify species fully, using the abbreviation "sp." in the singular or "spp." (standing for species pluralis, Latin for "multiple species") in the plural in place of the specific name or epithet (e.g. Canis sp.). This commonly occurs when authors are confident that some individuals belong to a particular genus but are not sure to which exact species they belong, as is common in
paleontology.[120]
Authors may also use "spp." as a short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but not to all. If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific name or epithet. The names of
genera and species are usually printed in
italics. However, abbreviations such as "sp." should not be italicised.[120]
When a species' identity is not clear, a specialist may use "cf." before the epithet to indicate that confirmation is required. The abbreviations "nr." (near) or "aff." (affine) may be used when the identity is unclear but when the species appears to be similar to the species mentioned after.[120]
Identification codes
With the rise of online databases, codes have been devised to provide identifiers for species that are already defined, including:
Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) employs a three- or four-letter code for a limited number of organisms; in this code, for example, H. sapiens is simply hsa.[122]
UniProt employs an "organism mnemonic" of not more than five alphanumeric characters, e.g., HUMAN for H. sapiens.[123]
The naming of a particular species, including which genus (and higher taxa) it is placed in, is a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships and distinguishability of that group of organisms. As further information comes to hand, the hypothesis may be corroborated or refuted. Sometimes, especially in the past when communication was more difficult, taxonomists working in isolation have given two distinct names to individual organisms later identified as the same species. When two species names are discovered to apply to the same species, the older species name is given
priority and usually retained, and the newer name considered as a junior synonym, a process called synonymy. Dividing a taxon into multiple, often new, taxa is called splitting. Taxonomists are often referred to as "lumpers" or "splitters" by their colleagues, depending on their personal approach to recognising differences or commonalities between organisms.[125][126][120] The circumscription of taxa, considered a taxonomic decision at the discretion of cognizant specialists, is not governed by the Codes of Zoological or Botanical Nomenclature, in contrast to the
PhyloCode, and contrary to what is done in several other fields, in which the definitions of technical terms, like geochronological units and geopolitical entities, are explicitly delimited.[127][93]
The
nomenclatural codes that guide the naming of species, including the
ICZN for animals and the
ICN for plants, do not make rules for defining the boundaries of the species. Research can change the boundaries, also known as circumscription, based on new evidence. Species may then need to be distinguished by the boundary definitions used, and in such cases the names may be qualified with sensu stricto ("in the narrow sense") to denote usage in the exact meaning given by an author such as the person who named the species, while the
antonymsensu lato ("in the broad sense") denotes a wider usage, for instance including other subspecies. Other abbreviations such as "auct." ("author"), and qualifiers such as "non" ("not") may be used to further clarify the sense in which the specified authors delineated or described the species.[120][128][129]
Change
Species are subject to change, whether by evolving into new species,[130] exchanging genes with other species,[131] merging with other species or by becoming extinct.[132]
The
evolutionary process by which biological populations of sexually-reproducing organisms evolve to become distinct or reproductively isolated as species is called
speciation.[133][134]Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of
natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book The Origin of Species.[135] Speciation depends on a measure of
reproductive isolation, a reduced gene flow. This occurs most easily in
allopatric speciation, where populations are separated geographically and can diverge gradually as mutations accumulate. Reproductive isolation is threatened by hybridisation, but this can be selected against once a pair of populations have incompatible
alleles of the same gene, as described in the
Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model.[130] A different mechanism, phyletic speciation, involves one lineage gradually changing over time into a new and distinct form (a
chronospecies), without increasing the number of resultant species.[136]
Horizontal gene transfer between organisms of different species, either through
hybridisation,
antigenic shift, or
reassortment, is sometimes an important source of genetic variation. Viruses can transfer genes between species. Bacteria can exchange plasmids with bacteria of other species, including some apparently distantly related ones in different phylogenetic
domains, making analysis of their relationships difficult, and weakening the concept of a bacterial species.[137][85][138][131]
Louis-Marie Bobay and Howard Ochman suggest, based on analysis of the genomes of many types of bacteria, that they can often be grouped "into communities that regularly swap genes", in much the same way that plants and animals can be grouped into reproductively isolated breeding populations. Bacteria may thus form species, analogous to Mayr's biological species concept, consisting of asexually reproducing populations that exchange genes by homologous recombination.[139][140]
A species is extinct when the
last individual of that species dies, but it may be
functionally extinct well before that moment. It is estimated that over 99 percent of all species that ever lived on Earth, some five billion species, are now extinct. Some of these were in
mass extinctions such as those at the ends of the
Ordovician,
Devonian,
Permian,
Triassic and
Cretaceous periods. Mass extinctions had a variety of causes including
volcanic activity,
climate change, and changes in oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, and they in turn had major effects on Earth's ecology, atmosphere, land surface and waters.[141][142] Another form of extinction is through the assimilation of one species by another through hybridization. The resulting single species has been termed as a "
compilospecies".[143]
Practical implications
Biologists and
conservationists need to categorise and identify organisms in the course of their work. Difficulty assigning organisms reliably to a species constitutes a threat to the
validity of research results, for example making measurements of how abundant a species is in an
ecosystem moot. Surveys using a phylogenetic species concept reported 48% more species and accordingly smaller populations and ranges than those using nonphylogenetic concepts; this was termed "taxonomic inflation",[144] which could cause a false appearance of change to the number of endangered species and consequent political and practical difficulties.[145][146] Some observers claim that there is an inherent conflict between the desire to understand the processes of speciation and the need to identify and to categorise.[146]
Conservation laws in many countries make special provisions to prevent species from going extinct. Hybridization zones between two species, one that is protected and one that is not, have sometimes led to conflicts between lawmakers, land owners and conservationists. One of the classic cases in North America is that of the protected
northern spotted owl which hybridises with the unprotected
California spotted owl and the
barred owl; this has led to legal debates.[147] It has been argued that the species problem is created by the varied uses of the concept of species, and that the solution is to abandon it and all other taxonomic ranks, and use unranked monophyletic groups instead, an approach facilitated by the
PhyloCode. It has been argued, too, that since species are not comparable, counting them is not a valid measure of
biodiversity; alternative measures of phylogenetic biodiversity have been proposed.[148][89][149]
In
his biology,
Aristotle used the term γένος (génos) to mean a kind, such as a
bird or
fish, and εἶδος (eidos) to mean a specific
form within a kind, such as (within the birds) the
crane,
eagle,
crow, or
sparrow. These terms were translated into Latin as "genus" and "species", though they do not correspond to the
Linnean terms thus named; today the birds are a
class, the cranes are a
family, and the crows a
genus. A kind was distinguished by its
attributes; for instance, a bird has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood. A form was distinguished by being shared by all its members, the young inheriting any variations they might have from their parents. Aristotle believed all kinds and forms to be distinct and unchanging. More importantly, in Aristotle's works, the terms γένος (génos) and εἶδος (eidos) are relative; a taxon that is considered an eidos in a given context can be considered a génos in another, and be further subdivided into eide (plural of eidos).[150][151] His approach remained influential until the
Renaissance,[152] and still, to a lower extent, today.[153]
When observers in the
Early Modern period began to develop systems of organization for living things, they placed each kind of animal or plant into a context. Many of these early delineation schemes would now be considered whimsical: schemes included consanguinity based on colour (all plants with yellow flowers) or behaviour (snakes, scorpions and certain biting ants).
John Ray, an English naturalist, was the first to attempt a biological definition of species in 1686, as follows:
No surer criterion for determining species has occurred to me than the distinguishing features that perpetuate themselves in propagation from seed. Thus, no matter what variations occur in the individuals or the species, if they spring from the seed of one and the same plant, they are accidental variations and not such as to distinguish a species ... Animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently; one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa.[154]
In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist
Carl Linnaeus classified organisms according to shared physical characteristics, and not simply based upon differences.[155] Like many contemporary systematists,[156][157][158] he established the idea of a
taxonomichierarchy of classification based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships.[159][160] At the time, however, it was still widely believed that there was no organic connection between species (except, possibly, between those of a given genus),[93] no matter how similar they appeared. This view was influenced by European scholarly and religious education, which held that the taxa had been created by God, forming an
Aristotelian hierarchy, the
scala naturae or great chain of being. However, whether or not it was supposed to be fixed, the scala (a ladder) inherently implied the possibility of climbing.[161]
Mutability
In viewing evidence of hybridisation, Linnaeus recognised that species were not fixed and could change; he did not consider that new species could emerge and maintained a view of divinely fixed species that may alter through processes of hybridisation or acclimatisation.[162] By the 19th century, naturalists understood that species could change form over time, and that the history of the planet provided enough time for major changes.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his 1809 Zoological Philosophy, described the
transmutation of species, proposing that a species could change over time, in a radical departure from Aristotelian thinking.[163]
In 1859,
Charles Darwin and
Alfred Russel Wallace provided a compelling account of
evolution and the formation of new species. Darwin argued that it was populations that evolved, not individuals, by
natural selection from naturally occurring variation among individuals.[164] This required a new definition of species. Darwin concluded that species are what they appear to be: ideas, provisionally useful for naming groups of interacting individuals, writing:
I look at the term species as one arbitrarily given for the sake of convenience to a set of individuals closely resembling each other ... It does not essentially differ from the word variety, which is given to less distinct and more fluctuating forms. The term variety, again, in comparison with mere individual differences, is also applied arbitrarily, and for convenience sake.[165]
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