Charlie Bell wrote: > > Yes, and if some disaster were to befall every dog breed except > Great Danes and Chihuahuas, that would be a speciation event. :-) > Your point is valid, and shows how tricky defining species can be - > there are whole groups of beetles of which the member species can > only be told apart by the shapes of the male and female genitalia, > which fit together like lock and key. So why are separate dog > breeds not regarded as species? The main reason is because it would > not be useful to do so - we know most breeds happily make mongrels, > and we know that on the whole, crossbreeds are healthier than pure > breeds (hybrid vigour vs inbreeding). So we know that all these dog > varieties are maintained by the artificial breeding and eugenics > programs of the Kennel Club, and if that were taken away, dog > variability would naturally decrease in some ways. > OTOH, Pitbulls should be called a different species; they are "dogs" in the same way that killer whales are "whales" :-/
(BTW: is it morally right to condemn a race of dogs, even one so degenerate that it kills children, to extinction?) Alberto Monteiro _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
