I wonder what would happen if...

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

Are you kidding? She's a tour guide. She's not a DNA scientist or something.

At first I was being sarcastic with her about the in vitro fertilization, because she kept going on and on about humans and apes being so closely related, so I brought up the dog and wolf example, along with other questions I had. I was just trying to get her to think about what she was saying. So yes, at first I was kidding a little until I started thinking about what I was kidding about.

I had questions, because I felt that some of the information she provided was inaccurate. She was making it seem like though chimps are a different species from us, that we're considered to be cousins.

She said that our DNA are very close as if we came from them. I felt that she wasn't understanding what biological species concept really is. I had questions, because biological species concept bases it's classification on reproductive compatibility. Organisms that can successfully reproduce together are considered to be of the same species, and those that can't reproduce together are a different species. There's only one living human species. Us. Of course the bio species concept definition leaves a lot to be desired because many closely related organisms can interbreed yet are clearly different enough to be separate species, which is why I sarcastically brought up the in vitro fertilization to her.

Another method of classification, one that I actually think works a little better, is knowing that species are groups of organisms that maintain unique identities, genetically, physically, and geographically over time and space. Like I said earlier, in dogs and wolves. They're both in genus "Canis". Before I get ahead of myself, just so you know, sharing a genus name tells you that organisms are quite similar and very closely related. We don't share the same genus name as chimps. Just because we share similar DNA doesn't mean we came from them. I felt she was way off. We're homo sapiens, chimps are pan troglodytes (not sure if I spelled that right) but it's something like that. Anyway, as I was saying with the wolves and dogs, they're species names are different. Dogs are always Canis familiaris, but there are many different species of wolves, all beginning with Canis but ending with a variety of species names to accurately describe how different they are from each other. Genetically dogs and wolves are very distinct, but they aren't so different that they can't reproduce. That's why I jokingly asked the in vitro fertilization question to her. Later, I started to wonder what if? I was really nice about it though. I mean, it's not like I was being mean to her or anything.