PT91.S4.Q18 (P3) - B versus D

Ashley2018-1

So the biological species concept is used by "lumpers," or people who like to group similar but different species together into one species, and is the idea that if there is no SIGNIFICANT interbreeding among members of different groups in the wild, then they should be considered distinct, or different, species because they are reproductively isolated.

How do I differentiate between B and D? Both talk about interbreeding among members of a species...if members of two different populations do interbreed, what would a lumper do? Would he stuff them together? Is that why D is correct? But D doesn’t mention whether the populations are wild or not. In terms of question type would this be comparable to a mss question?

maxjab00

Lumpers (biological species concept) = animals of the same species interbreed.

Splitters = animals of the same species have similar characteristics.

B. says that X and Y interbreed in the wild (but not in captivity), and therefore are not the same species. This does not quite match up with the the lumper claim (almost says the opposite).

D. says that X and Y interbreed, so are the same species despite having different characteristics. This matches the lumper definition as well as rejecting the splitter definition. The fact about captive animals is irrelevant; it does not need to be involved.

Yes, this seems lime a MSS question because it is not an airtight inference. The question does says what most accurately describes the idea, so that it makes sense to treat it as MSS.

Darien022

How are you interpreting the biological species concept as birds that interbreed? The passage clearly states that the birds do not interbreed.