The dimensions, modes and definitions of species and speciation
Biology and Philosophy 22 (2):247-266 (2007)
Abstract |
Speciation is an aspect of evolutionary biology that has received little philosophical attention apart from articles mainly by biologists such as Mayr (1988). The role of speciation as a terminus a quo for the individuality of species or in the context of punctuated equilibrium theory has been discussed, but not the nature of speciation events themselves. It is the task of this paper to attempt to bring speciation events into some kind of general scheme, based primarily upon the work of Sergey Gavrilets on adaptive landscapes, using migration rate, or gene flow, as the primary scale, and concluding that adaptive and drift explanations are complementary rather than competing. I propose a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic selection, and the notion of reproductive reach and argue that speciation modes should be discriminated in terms of gene flow, the nature of selection maintaining reproductive reach, and whether the predominant cause is selective or stochastic. I also suggest that the notion of an adaptive “quasispecies” for asexual species is the primitive notion of species, and that members of reproductively coherent sexual species are additionally coadapted to their mating partners.
|
Keywords | History & Philosophy Of Science species speciation adaptive landscape gavrilets Lizards Genus Cnemidophorus Sympatric Speciation Mole-rats Hybridization Populations Controversy Divergence Radiation Traits Time |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1007/s10539-006-9043-9 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Homeostasis, Species, and Higher Taxa.Richard Boyd - 1999 - In R. A. Wilson (ed.), Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays. MIT Press. pp. 141-85.
Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought.Peter Gärdenfors - 2000 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 64 (1):180-181.
Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist.Ernst Mayr - 1988 - Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Kinds, Complexity, and Multiple Realization.Robert Boyd - 1999 - Philosophical Studies 95 (1-2):67-98.
View all 12 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
The Hunting of the SNaRC: A Snarky Solution to the Species Problem.Brent D. Mishler & John S. Wilkins - 2018 - Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 10 (1).
The Current Status of the Philosophy of Biology.Peter Takacs & Michael Ruse - 2013 - Science & Education 22 (1):5-48.
Species as Explanatory Hypotheses: Refinements and Implications.Kirk Fitzhugh - 2009 - Acta Biotheoretica 57 (1-2):201-248.
Similar books and articles
The Biological Species as a Gene-Flow Community. Species Essentialism Does Not Imply Species Universalism.Werner Kunz & Markus Werning - unknown
A Commentary on Ridley's Cladistic Solution to the Species Problem.Mark Wilkinson - 1990 - Biology and Philosophy 5 (4):433-446.
Why Was Darwin’s View of Species Rejected by Twentieth Century Biologists?James Mallet - 2010 - Biology and Philosophy 25 (4):497-527.
Species Are Individuals: Theoretical Foundations for the Claim.Mary B. Williams - 1985 - Philosophy of Science 52 (4):578-590.
Adaptive Speciation: The Role of Natural Selection in Mechanisms of Geographic and Non-Geographic Speciation.Jason M. Byron - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 36 (2):303-326.
Trémaux on Species: A Theory of Allopatric Speciation (and Punctuated Equilibrium) Before Wagner.John S. Wilkins & Gareth J. Nelson - 2008 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 30 (1):179-206.
The Cladistic Solution to the Species Problem.Mark Ridley - 1989 - Biology and Philosophy 4 (1):1-16.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2009-01-28
Total views
185 ( #40,952 of 2,273,413 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #160,179 of 2,273,413 )
2009-01-28
Total views
185 ( #40,952 of 2,273,413 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #160,179 of 2,273,413 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads