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Giraffes May Be Six Separate Species
The BBC reports on research, published in BMC Biology, pointing to the possibility that there may be at least six species of giraffe in Africa. Quoting: "'Using molecular techniques we found that giraffes can be classified into six groups that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding,' David Brown, the lead author of the study and a geneticist at... UCLA told BBC News. 'The results were a surprise because although the giraffes look different, if you put them in zoos, they breed freely.'"
Let me be the first to ask: Who cares?
c++;
Even though we all look different (eg: skin colour, height, "width", etc), if you put us in zoos, we will breed freely also
Assuming they produce viable offspring, isn't that one of the primary definitions for a single species?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Something doesn't add up in this article. It's missing a few details.
The *definition* of a species is that the members of it can breed and produce *fertile* offspring.
The article could perhaps be mixing up "species" and another term, (perhaps "breed"?) or omitting to mention that offspring produced are infertile.
à_à
After much debate within the men's community, there has been a decision to classify females as an entirely new species.
Confirming the almot accepted idea that men are from earth and women are from planet far away and at constant war every 28 days.
They call this science? Bah. Everything you need to know about giraffes is contained in this brilliant, revolutionary book:
http://www.amazon.com/Giraffes-Doris-Haggis-Whey/dp/1932416978
For example:
"The female Maasai giraffe may be looking at the male reticulated giraffe and thinking, 'I don't look like you; I don't want to mate with you'," Mr Brown explained.
So, in short...the giraffes are racists unless they live in a "multicultural" environment (ie: a zoo)?
Now, where have I heard that before?
I think this merely serves to prove Ricky Gervais' theory of scientists getting a per-species payment.
the people of texas are a completely different species to the ones in New York and California.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
Good Morning Baby..... ... ...
Hey wait a minute, you're not the same giraffe from last night !
I sat down to write a new sig tonight and all I did was make the chair warm.
Don't assume this is a racist situation, based on spots arrangement or something so trivial.
This is obviously a division based on politics. I am sure once the primaries in the US are over, they will be down to two, three at most "subspecies" of giraffe.
I mean come on, would you want to mate with a Hillary supporter?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
... because random stupid facts like this are bound to show up as a question or two on NTN trivia within the next month.
Karma: NaN
Molecular Techniques? Is that like back in the 50s, when suddenly everything became associated with "the atom"?
"New, Fallout Man. With Kung Fu grip and the Power Of the Atom! (Note: Contains REAL ATOMS!!!)"
Everyone knows giraffes can be grouped into six category by the spot patterns on their backs, just like everyone knows how they came to us from Neptune on a conveyor belt, or that they love fruit juice and play with marbles.
Oh, Giraffes? Giraffes!, I love you so!
Giraffes were created when Chuck Norris uppercut a horse.
If they can interbreed and generate fertile offspring, as they obviously can, then they are obviously the same species, even if micro-evolution has taken them down different paths.
What this study may have discovered is the equivalent of the "black" giraffe, the "white" giraffe, and the "oriental" giraffe.
homosexual rather than hetero mounting are the rule this might explain the six subspecies in the wild, no motivation to walk far away in search of new females when all they mostly want is some quick gay ass
Are you serious or are you trolling? Because if your serious, that's the most offensive thing I've seen on Slashdot, and I've seen a LOT of offensive shit here.
Race is a myth. There is as much genetic variation between individuals within a so-called race as there is between races.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
So isolated Amazon tribes are not the same species than the rest of humans because they don't mate with us?
Bullshit. If they are able to breed and produce fertile offspring, they are the same species. Period.
Perhaps, in the future, the reproductive isolation of these subspecies will make them evolve in a way that they will not be able to produce fertile offspring any more when mating. Then and only then, they will be different species. But we are talking about now and not about hypothetical futures.
By this logic, supermodels and Slashdotters are members of different species.
Have gnu, will travel.
Unlike what was previously believed, hot chicks and nerds have been proved to be separate species.
A new study published in Science magazine by David Brown proves with no doubt that these two kind of mammals don't interbreed in their natural environment. "The results were a surprise because although hot chicks and nerd look different, if you put them into a cage in a zoo and left there for the rest of their lives, they DO breed freely (but this is out of desperation rather than out of legitimate reproductive intentions)".
It is not clear why these two animal species, so far considered within the Homo sapiens species, don't breed together. Mr Brown added: "There are no architectural barriers nor lack of motels to prevent breeding, but some evolutionary process is keeping the two groups reproductively separated."
The researchers have suggested this separation may be being driven by differences of interests or even sexual selection.
"The female hot chick may be looking at the male nerd and thinking, 'I don't want anybody like you; I don't want to mate with you'," Mr Brown explained. In fact, in the vicinity of nerds, these female animals have been heard emitting sounds which sound like "LOSER! LOSER!", whatever the function these sounds have in the mating ritual of the Hot chick species.
"It is not that female hot chick are not sexually active", Mr. Brown added. "They are known for f*cking every bad boy, thug or rich guy in a radius of 20 miles. But, for some reason, they are not interested in nerds or geeks".
If they CAN interbreed, they are not different species. Giraffes are very likely just as picky. If you remove cultural influences, are you sure people would breed as freely as we do? Why do some people like brown eyes and some like blue? If you insist that it's entirely cultural, then you'll have to explain why children under 4 have these preferences, too.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
"if you put them in zoos, they breed freely."
If the offspring are viable, then they're the same species. That is the definition of a species. Doesn't matter if they geographically isolated, or not.
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Giraffes were formed when Chuck Norris gave a horse an uppercut.
Want to improve your life? This guy will show you how!
But I've come to expect that people as a rule ignore the genius of Jeff Minter's psychedelic gaming opus. A game that is unfairly ignored by players and hated by amateur gamers who don't 'get' it - there's no justice in this world, well except for the french filter disco band Justice....
Up for it.
on the definition of "species". There are a number of species concepts. If you use the biospecies concept from Ernst Mayr (1947), it requires the possibility of fertile offspring for two animals to belong to the same species. In the morphospecies concept, two animals are assumed to belong to the same species if they look close enough (whatever specific type of measure you want to use here). Remember, "Species" is not something natural, it is a human categorization. So that research referenced here is nothing utterly surprising to any phylogeneticist. Just my 2cents as a biologist :)
If they can interbreed and produce viable offspring, then they are not separate species. Just different breeds. In humans, some would call them races. In dogs it's breeds. Isolate any population long enough and genetic drift will produce differences. It takes a very long isolation to prevent interbreeding.
For that matter, dogs and wolves are still the same species. Lots of variation, but they can still interbreed.
Horses an Asses are different species. They can interbreed, but the cross is almost always sterile. Same with horses and zebras. Or so I hear. African and Indian elephants are also different species, I think. I don't know of any fertile crosses. Lion and tiger can produce offspring, but it's sterile too.
We need better definitions for species. I still use the old one from the 60's that a species is any population whose members can reproduce fertile offspring. (This assumes male/female pairing of course.)
I understand a lot of biologists don't like that any more. It destroys too many cherished theories. But, as I am an experimentalist, I have always believed that theories were made to be broken.
Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
What... is your quest?
ARTHUR:
To seek the Holy Grail.
BRIDGEKEEPER:
What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen Giraffe?
ARTHUR:
What do you mean? An African or European Giraffe?
BRIDGEKEEPER:
Huh? I-- I don't know that. Auuuuuuuugh!
Like Dogs? or Cats?
Shame for you, maybe...
I grew up watching The Goodies at 6pm, and then Doctor Who at 6:30pm five nights a week.
But then, I live in Australia, and we watched the national broadcaster, who had absolutely zero difficulty obtaining BBC shows.
As compared to the commercial networks, who preferred to re-re-re-run old episodes of Gilligan's Island or Hogan's Heroes.
Hmm, maybe *that's* why the BBC shows didn't hit US TV? Perhaps?
Hell, here in Oz, the commercial networks are *finally* realising the Beeb produces some seriously good stuff.
So far, they're up to about 1978 in their re-re-re-re-re-run frenzy of old BBC comedies - Benny Hill, Are You Being Served ("I'm free!"), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em... I'm guessing the broadcast rights of those 30-year-old shows are now going rather cheap.
No, race is not a "myth" any more than talking about "blondes" and "brunettes" is a "myth". A "race" is simply a description given to people who share some similar (physical) traits. It's a shortcut. If I say a guy "looks nordic", that saves me the trouble of saying "he has pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes". Think of it as a prototype library.
Races form when communities live isolated for a long time (either as adaptations to the environemnt or as consequences of cultural selection), and they fade when different communities mix (and interbreed) regularly. The fact that there's a lot of genetic variation within, say, the Tutsi tribe, does not mean a Tutsi isn't likely to be more similar (both physically and genetically) to another Tutsi than to a native of Japan.
In any case, 90% of humans are innately tribal (hey, it was really useful until 100 thousand years ago, or so), so even if physical racial distinctions become meaningless, they'll simply divide people in tribes based on their place of birth, language or culture. In fact, this is what most people already do in "modern societies" where being a "racist" is considered a bad thing (so, instead, you talk about the superiority of your "culture"; how civilised your society is, how erudite your language is, how deeply moral your religion is, and so on).
Its just another day of the month. Just happens to be a day off from work for many people. ( not all, but many )
---- Booth was a patriot ----