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Author Topic:   How do we define a "new" species.
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1498 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 3 of 49 (177991)
01-17-2005 10:42 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by LDSdude
01-17-2005 10:21 PM


Here's a question for all you atheist's out there. In the process of evolution
Atheists and evolutionists are two different things.
How can you justify that one creature's DNA is different than another?
Everybody's DNA is different. Don't you watch CSI? That's how they can catch rapists and stuff from DNA. It's like a fingerprint.
Here's the problem, however, every single breed has the same DNA as the wolves and dingos ect. that they descended from.
Well, no, they don't. If they had the same DNA, they'd look the same as those animals. The only organisms that have identical DNA are identical twins.
Monkeys and Humans have differing DNA, so then we can't be the "New" species, because no matter how different our physical characteristics are, our DNA has to be the same if we descended from them, right? Wrong?
Right and wrong. The majority of our DNA is the same as that of other apes, like chimpanzees, our closest relative. (Chimps are not monkeys, BTW. Monkeys have tails.) In places, however, our DNA is different, which is why we're not all chimps.
Although man can use breeding to get different physical appearences in animals, only the Lord can manage to truly customize a new species.
Well, since we stimulate the formation of new species all the time in the lab; and since we observe it all the time in the wild, I'd say you were wrong about that.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by LDSdude, posted 01-17-2005 10:21 PM LDSdude has not replied

  
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1498 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 12 of 49 (180500)
01-25-2005 3:53 PM
Reply to: Message 10 by LDSdude
01-25-2005 3:49 PM


Also, people and monkies are not... 'incompatible' in reproducing.
I'm curious what leads you to believe this is the case. I'm not familiar with any experiments that resulted in monkey-human hybrids. (maybe you meant "ape"? Like, gorillas? I'm not familiar with any human-gorilla hybrids either.)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 10 by LDSdude, posted 01-25-2005 3:49 PM LDSdude has not replied

  
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1498 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 33 of 49 (180886)
01-26-2005 4:56 PM
Reply to: Message 32 by robinrohan
01-26-2005 4:16 PM


A "species" can be defined as an isolated gene pool---not isolated by some external factor, such as locale, but isolated because its DNA is not compatible with any other DNA. There are a few cases--such as wolves and dogs--which are accorded separate species-status more for traditional, cultural reasons rather than DNA incompatibility.
That's good but it seems to me that DNA incompatibility is usually the last step on the road of speciation, and it's the step that takes the longest. But I think you're on the right track in referring to the isolation of the gene pool.
In practice I think "species" tends to refer to a gene pool that is isolated now, for whatever reason, and in all likelyhood will continue to be isolated. To the degree that this relies on our ability to prognosticate about the future of a gene pool it might not be pretty, but I certainly think its the most practical, and provides the results closest to the traditional "folk" concept of species.

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 Message 32 by robinrohan, posted 01-26-2005 4:16 PM robinrohan has not replied

  
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