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like_any_other 2 hours ago

Is there any species, other than humans, that is found all across the globe (i.e. geographically separated), and has not differentiated into subspecies? Wolves, elephants, tigers, bears, and foxes have all been categorized into multiple subspecies each, distinct but able to interbreed.

greazy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The definition of what constitutes a species is a human construct.

Two bird populations living in the same locale but divided by a mountain range therefore not naturally breeding with each other would classify as a different species, even if they could breed with each other.

So your question is hard to answer.

nelox an hour ago | parent [-]

I’ve often dreamt of breeding with that mythical bird far, far away.

greazy 3 minutes ago | parent [-]

If you do cross the barrier, you could successfully mate with that mythical bird!

SloppyDrive 23 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We dont categorize humans that way; not because humans are different but because of cultural norms.

The generous idea is that "subspecies" does not provide an anthropologist a useful lens to look at humanity, therefore we do not classify.

The alternative is that "subspecies" is too close to "race" for scientists, publishers, and funding bodies to touch, so its deliberately ignored.

showerst an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How about Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion?

It’s not quite all across the globe but pretty close, and is so adapted that it is not considered invasive any more in most places.

chrisweekly 3 minutes ago | parent [-]

Or, it's equally invasive everywhere.

IncreasePosts 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do humans not fit the standards for being broken into multiple subspecies? I assumed that they would but "the science community" is too scared of the implications when idiots learn about it.

I look at a sumatran tiger and a Siberian tiger and I see a lot less variance than I see when I look at a pygmy, a Norwegian, an sentinel islander, and a han Chinese person

krapp 2 minutes ago | parent [-]

>Do humans not fit the standards for being broken into multiple subspecies?

No. Multiple human subspecies did once exist (examples being Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Erectus, and Homo Floresiensis) but only our species, Homo Sapiens, remains (with traces of Neanderthal DNA so there was some interbreeding.) However race is a cultural and social construct. Different human races are not different human subspecies. A Pygmy, a Norwegian, a Sentinel Islander, and a Han Chinese person are all the same species. The superficial variations in average height, skin color, etc. do not vary enough to constitute species differentiation - humans share 99.9% of their DNA, and the vast majority of genetic variation exists within populations (in other words, within "races") and not between them.

api an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not many. Part of why we are like this is extreme mobility. Even before modern times we were always good at getting around and seem to have a desire to roam. Or at least enough of us do to mix up those gene pools.

like_any_other an hour ago | parent [-]

If that were true before modern times, distinctions in appearance never could have developed.

api 35 minutes ago | parent [-]

It’s not binary. Before modern times there was enough mixing to keep speciation from occurring but not enough to fully homogenize.

If our modern world continues for thousands of years eventually our differences will start to dissolve.

meroes 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Dogs?

paulryanrogers 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Aren't dogs technically one species?

hooo 2 hours ago | parent [-]

This distinction seems more arbitrary over time. Growing up I was taught different species couldn’t interbreed. But what about Neanderthal and Sapiens?

like_any_other 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't think you could have chosen a worse example. Dogs are themselves a subspecies, and are split into many different breeds, of wildly different character and physiology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Taxonomy

idiotsecant 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Breeds and species are different things. Parent post is making a (very good) point that dogs can pretty much all breed with one another.

yabutlivnWoods an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> ...distinct but able to interbreed

I mean people won't like the idea but that's not my point; what you describe variety in superficial traits while maintaining common traits

Applied to humans; skin color, eyes, dwarfism, hypertrichosis... can still interbreed

When it comes to categorization and taxonomy in leaky abstractions like languages the boundaries get a bit hand wavy and usually land on whatever fits the prevailing social desirability bias of the day

like_any_other an hour ago | parent [-]

> you describe variety in superficial traits

The same selection pressures that produced the variety of "superficial" traits also act on "non-superficial" traits - nature does not recognize this distinction.

yabutlivnWoods 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

You cherry picked one idea from my post. I was not addressing nature but human social tropes.

What is a subspecies and species is random gibberish of the living humans

renewiltord an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They have to be. The snail darter is genetically identical to another animal and is a separate species. Most likely different humans are as well.

erichocean 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Humans have, obviously. Just interbreeding with ancient species was enough to do it, even without separate evolution.