[obol] species concepts

[Whit Bronaugh]

Across the taxonomic spectrum, Ernst Mayer's Biological Species 
Concept is little used and may be on it's way out.   Most botanists and 
invertebrate zoologists (which includes most systematists in general) have 
generally not used the Biological Species Concept.  Mayer was an 
ornithologist and it has primarily been ornithologists and other vertebrate 
biologists who have followed him.  In the last 20 years or so most 
Ichthyologists and Herpetologists have switched to the Evolutionary Species 
Concept of Wiley so today the BSC is mainly used by ornithologists and 
mammalogists.  That represents only about 15,000 extant species (using the 
BSC) out of nearly 2 million described species in the world.  It represents 
less than 25% of vertebrates.  Plus, a growing number of ornithologists are 
using one of the Phylogenetic species concepts.

Whit Bronaugh
Eugene

"No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows 
vaguely what he means when he speaks of a species."    Charles Darwin, On 
the Origin of Species
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