Re: Of Tarbosaurs and tabbies

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting zone65@bigpond.com:

> OK, but doesn't that really amount to them being in the incomplete 
> process of diverging from each other? Shouldn't they only become 
> distinct species when they can no longer interbreed at all? Currently 
> they can still do so, but the results are inconsistent, and will 
> presumably eventually amount to nothing when they've evolved away from 
> one another sufficiently.

Wait, so you're advocating a system wherein any two individuals who can mate to
produce viable (even if sterile) offspring would be lumped into the same
species???

I think you'd find very few specialists would agree with you there.  This would
mean lumping entire families (Elephantidae, Equidae, Delphinidae, perhaps
Felidae) into single species--and probably even more drastic lumping among
plants.

Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan