[Taxacom] [tdwg] Semantic Web: What is a species?

[Karl Magnacca]

On Sun, January 25, 2009 8:08 pm, Richard Pyle wrote:
> What Darwin said in the 'Origin of Species' is still true today:
> "No one definition has as yet satisfied all naturalists; yet every
> naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of a species."

Exactly; much like the famous quote about pornography, every taxonomist
knows what a species is even if they can't define it, sometimes have a
hard time drawing the line at what individuals/populations should and
shouldn't be included in a given species, and might not necessarily draw
that line the same way during different revisions.

Karl
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Karl Magnacca
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Zoology
Trinity College, Dublin 2
Ireland