Questions tagged [species]
The basic unit of taxonomic classification.
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Does a 2-year-cycle species exist?
Many species sleep for an entire season or travel from one continent to another every year. For all species I know all of these recurring events occur in a period of one year. One might refer to these ...
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Is being able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring a transitive relation in biology?
Being able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring is one criterion to decide whether two populations are of different species.
Are there 3 populations A, B, C such that A and B are able to ...
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Could you recreate an organism having only its DNA? [duplicate]
Or in other words: does DNA carry all the information required to fully describe the specie or is some of that information "stored" in how are its living organisms bodies structured/shaped/...
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What plant species generate the highest amount of bioelectricity?
I just want to ask which plant species produces a high amount of electricity. I'm very confused with the units that's why I don't know which species produce the highest amount of electricity. Also, ...
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What organism is this? Repetitive, long thread, double spikes, ... (from a human sputum sample) [closed]
Link to video
Collected in Portugal.
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Is there no scientific definition of species? [duplicate]
According to the definition on Nature's website:
A biological species is a group of organisms that can reproduce with
one another in nature and produce fertile offspring. Species are
characterized by ...
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On the origin and evolution of vaccinia virus
I was browsing Wikipedia and learned that vaccinia virus, the basis of the smallpox (variola virus) vaccine, was originally thought to be derived from cowpox but was later discovered to be a separate ...
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Is there a name for the natural law that any population of a species will increase until it utilizes all available resources in the area it inhabits?
A squirrel population in a forest will only be as big as the available food source allows, and probably a little smaller after you account for predators, disease, etc. What is the name of the tendency ...
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At what point in evolution is a new species identified? [duplicate]
As we know, a change in allelic frequency leads to evolution, and as these changes accumulate a new species is created.
My question has two parts -
A classical definition of species which is now not ...
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What Snake is this? (Found at my door in Raebareli, North India)
Found this snake at my door in Raebareli, North India. We of course allowed it to go away peacefully.
Could someone please identify it for me?
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Has life on Earth explored the entire space of genomes?
Recently I came across a 2008 article, the authors of which argue that in fact the space of protein sequences is not as large as it might seem, and that life on Earth has most likely already explored ...
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References for historical momentum in asexual species definitions
For sexually reproducing organisms, the scope of a species is somewhat fixed by reproductive compatibility.
However, this all collapses for organisms that exclusively reproduce asexually.
Here, my ...
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Novel bacterial strains of bacteria first isolated on the International Space Station, did the space environment lead to these genetic changes?
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Methylobacterium ajmalii sp. nov., Isolated From the International Space Station (Bijlani et al. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, p. 534, 2021) is a thorough analysis of "novel strains&...
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Defining "species" (Are species an emergent property or an ensemble of quantitative differences?)
Interbreeding
Defining species by the criteria of not being able to breed is problematic:
The concept loses its meaning in phylogenetic prospective, since closely related species were able to breed ...
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Does lack of adaptations for sperm competition necessarily shows the species are monogamous/serially monogamous/polygynous?
On the one hand adaptations for sperm competition, such as large testes, mate guarding, etc. are used to support that female in species are promiscuous.
On the other hand we know multiple eusocial ...
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Is there an example of a new species through mutation breeding? [duplicate]
Is there a demonstrable species that went through mutation breeding and through successive generations it drifted so far away from its initial parent species that it can't breed with them anymore? (I ...
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In plant species' description, does the leaf length include the lamina and petiole, or only the lamina?
The description (partially pasted below) of Ramosmania rodriguesii in Verdcourt (1996) states that the leaves are up to 30 cm long. Does this length include both the lamina and petiole, or only the ...
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Is there any evidence that humans isolated from each other genetically are less able to produce viable offspring?
I would guess that before a new species originates, members of subgroups might have difficulty in interbreeding. Is this possible?
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Species that have evolved to be near identical? [closed]
Are there any species that are near identical in outward appearance but are separate species?
When I say species I mean can’t interbreed.
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Approximately how long will it take to document all existing species? [closed]
I did some research and found that there is a new estimate of 8.7 million species, plus or minus 1.3 million and that about 1.2 million have been discovered already. About how long will it take to ...
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Why is it difficult for germs to jump species?
If you haven't watched CGP Grey's video Americapox: The Missing Plague, I suggest you watch it. It's an excellent video.
One assertion he makes is that "germs jumping species is extraordinarily ...
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What is the defining characteristics of a Gap Species?
For the following competitive exam question: A road is constructed through a tropical rain forest, following which a population of a species of butterflies declines. Which of the following is NOT a ...
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If species are reproductively isolated, then how are interspecific hybridisations carried out?
during fertilisation there is compatibility test done so that both sperms and eggs are of same species. the zona pellucida of egg bears sperm specific receptor proteins(ZP3 receptor proteins) which ...
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Why are diseases generally specific to a particular species
"Zoonosis" is the process of transmitting a disease from an infected animal to a human. This suggests that animal-to-human transmission is not common. HIV is believed to have first spread to humans ...
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Are black panthers the same as jaguars?
I google the scientific name for black panthers. I get panthera onca. I google panthera onca, and I get jaguar. Can someone explain what is going on? Are they the same? What is the real scientific ...
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what is “a group of living things that can interbreed and produce full interfertile offspring”?
lets call this term "collection" Example: group of humans.
what is not a "collection" horses and donkey: can't produce full interfertile offspring, lions and tigers: can't produce full interfertile ...
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Unidentified Spider
Apologies for the rubbish quality of the image, but I found this spider while in the shower. I’m not exactly sure what species it is and wonder if someone can help me out.
I live in southeast ...
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Species identification: what kind of fungus is this?
Found in a cave
Location: Israel
The white tentacles appear to be sticky. When they touch something, they stick to it and detach from the main body
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help identifying marine item found on beach
Need help identifying this hard waxy egg like item found on beach in Destin, FL (USA). It feels waxy and semi hard. Also smells like squid or real fishy. it is also semi transparent with dark tan ...
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Have there been multiple aboriginal species of dogs?
In "Variation under Domestication", Darwin writes that:
I may here state, that, looking to the domestic dogs of the whole world, I have, after a laborious collection of all known facts, come to the ...
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Is there a definition of species where Lions and Tigers are the same species?
According to Species concepts
There are at least 26 recognized species concepts
And according to Why are lions and tigers considered different species (not sure how reliable this source is though, ...
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What is a "Valid Species"?
I read in a reference book on Google Books (Biology of Termites: a Modern Synthesis, eds. Bignell, Roisin, and Lo) that the termite Heterotermes perfidus found on the South Atlantic island of St ...
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How many different species have existed on Earth?
NOTE: Someone else asked this same question a few years back, but it was incorrectly marked as a duplicate and so the question may not have been answered satisfactorily. I'm asking it again, in hopes ...
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What is this tiny, transparent creature found in my home?
Found these in my bathroom, everything was literally crawling with them - there were thousands of those on walls, sink, bathtub... I have all surfaces were sprayed with chlorine spray and with bug ...
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What is this soft cased worm-like creature?
Found this creature in the bathroom
Features which ought to help for identification:
Size = 1 cm
Soft casing
Can emerge from either end of its case and thus reverse the direction it crawls.
Many ...
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Are there poisons that affect only mammals but not reptiles
Are there poisons that affect only mammals but not reptiles or crustaceans?
E.g. hemotoxins which affect hemoglobin but not hemocyanin or specific Na+ channels?
Looking for a "nice" poison/disease as ...
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Worm Identification
Please identify the attached worm and larvae.
Location: Payette, Idaho
Approximate size: 1 mm
Found in home.
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Cross species effects of Apis mellifera queen pheromones
I am looking for studies that show effects of Apis mellifera queen pheromones on other species. An example of one such study is where A. mellifera queen pheromones deactivated the ovaries of ...
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Database of colors mapped to species
I was wondering about the physics of color, and now am interested in finding out if there are any resources (databases, text files, html tables, or pdf listings) of species and their associated colors ...
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Help me ID snake
Could someone please tell me if this is a cotton mouth? Found 2 on my back porch, one got away.
Location: Fayetteville, AR (USA) [Note: there are several ponds nearby]
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What species of frog is this?
I was walking around outside my house when I found this little guy clinging to the outer wall of my house. The house in question is located in Indiana, United States. What is interesting to note is ...
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Why are mules/donkeys aggressive when faced with predators but horses are not?
I came upon an interesting quote after going down the rabbit hole on a variety of subjects. While deep in the data, I came upon this quote
oat and farm animal owners likes to have mules with their ...
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Tiny bug in Amman-Jordan
I saw this bug many times in my room this spring. Can any one help identifying it?!
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What makes an E.coli an E.coli, genotype or phenotype?
According to this paper, among 61 strains of E. coli they studied only 6% of the genes are common in all. Which means that the overwhelming majority of the genes are not shared.
And wikipedia ...
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Mild introduction to selective advantage of intelligence/nervous systems in animals?
I have a general understanding of why intelligence, i.e. nervous systems in animals, is advantageous: processing information allows an animal to adapt to its environment dynamically and perform ...
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Can two different species in the same genus generally succeed in the same habitat?
This plant-care website writes
In the context of plant care, usually most plants within the same genus need the same environmental conditions suitable for plant growth. If the genus of a plant is ...
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What kind of fish is on the picture?
I saw these fish in a video at an art exhibition, I'd like to find out what kind they are.
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