On 12/01/2011 04:12 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> If you can't, take a look at dogs. Some kinds can't interbreed with each
>> other, if only due to huge differences in size. Humans did that.
>
>    I don't think that is what defines a species. It's about genetics.

How about this: There are two species of grasshopper that never 
interbreed. The females of species A ignore the songs of males of 
species B. However, if you mute the male and play back a recording of a 
male of species A, the two will mate, and produce viable offspring. It's 
just that this only ever happens in the lab.

Does that not count as two species then?

Similarly, there are probably classes of birds where you could do the 
same thing by putting coloured visors over the bird's eyes, or moths 
where you could mask one chemical pheromone with another. Are these 
separate species?

You can apparently mate a lion with a tiger, producing either a "liger" 
or a "tiglon". (Go look them up.) But this never happens in the wild (as 
far as we know). Are these separate species?

Indeed, you can even do really weird stuff like implant a goat embryo 
into a big. But that doesn't make goats and pigs the same species.

If two creatures would not normally interbreed, they are separate species.

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