• @FiniteBanjo
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    71 month ago

    Explicitly yes, a species is where fertile offspring can be produced.

    • VindictiveJudge
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      71 month ago

      Well, most of the time, anyway. Biology is far too messy for that to be a hard and fast rule, as it turns out.

      • @FiniteBanjo
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        21 month ago

        It holds up for most of the animal kingdom, at least.

      • @MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        21 month ago

        Yeah species is actually a made up concept with no grounding in empirical science. Scientists just decided to invent species to make their jobs easier.

        • @Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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          124 days ago

          What defines a species is whether or not the offspring of two individuals can have offspring.

          A lion and a tiger can make, however Ligras are infertile, so they’re different species.

          • @MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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            124 days ago

            Nah that’s not true. Haven’t you ever heard of crossbreeding flowers? Plus there’s an example very close to home in the interbreeding of sapiens and neanderthals