BRAINCAKEBiological Concept of Species
The biological species concept was proposed by Ernst Mayr in 1942. It defines a species as a group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that can produce fertile offspring and that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
'Potentially' matters: two populations on separate islands never meet, but if they could breed together and produce fertile offspring, they are still one species.
Species stay separate because of isolating mechanisms:
• prezygotic mechanisms stop mating or fertilisation happening: for example different breeding seasons, different courtship displays or songs, living in different habitats, or genitalia or flowers that do not fit together.
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Key terms in this lesson
- gene flow
- The transfer of alleles between populations through interbreeding and migration.
More in Classification
- Taxonomic Groups
- Binomial System
- Species
- Morphological Concept of Species
- Other Species Models
- Limitations of Species Models
- Identifying a Species
- DNA Barcode
All 19 lessons in Classification · All Edexcel AS-level Biology topics