Are two dogs of different colors different species?

example of a made up loose defnition: should possess some form of abstract thinking capabilities and developed planning abilities to an extent which monkeys don't have. That definition would include most people from different cultures. (it's obviously a crap definition as it would exclude people with certain disorders such as down syndrome or profound mental Retardation).

a stricter defnition would be: nose cannot exceed the width of 3 centimeters. This would exclude most african americans and asians as being the same species as caucasians.

I am very aware that my defnitions are crap, but the point I'm trying to make is that who belongs to a certain species is partially dependend on the defnition of species we use.

The definition of species is not arbitrary. It makes very good sense what they use to differentiate between two species.

im actually quite surprised this thread made it past 2 pages :] .

well, technically it is arbitrary. It has a general english meaning that preceded the biological definition (pardon my terminology, language majors), it's not a term coined for a specific purpose, and it is modified to fit the biological context in a convenient (yet arbitrary) manner. He has a point, as the distinction between species and sub-species isn't always clear, nor is the transition from one species into another a smooth one.

This post was edited by Neptunus on Apr 23 2013 12:24pm

bumpy

''

There is no such thing as a stupid question.


just stupid people.

I did the exact thing.