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Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by puredemo on Friday November 27, 2015 @09:35AM (#10637453)
It's the least arbitrary and most accepted widely measure, though.
Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by Angostura on Friday November 27, 2015 @09:57AM (#10637538)
Unfortunately, it is hugely over simplistic. Using it you can conclude that blackberries and raspberries are the same species and that lions and tigers are kinda-sorta the same species, since it has been possible to get Ligers to successfully mate with their parent species.

So regarding its characterisation as "a very simple scientific test" - no, it isn't.

Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by Turing_Machine on Friday November 27, 2015 @01:37PM (#10638309)
There are even not-uncommon situations where Population A can breed with Population B, and Population B can breed with Population C, but Population A and Population C can't interbreed.

Using "can breed" as the metric for "same species" creates the situation where A and B are the same species, and B and C are the same species, but A and C are not. That's clearly contrary to what most people have in mind when they use the word "species".

Species really should be a continuum rather than a binary.

Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by wmil on Friday November 27, 2015 @10:26AM (#10637633)
Polar bears and grizzlies are probably a better example. They produce fertile offspring but no one thinks of them as the same species.
Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by galago on Friday November 27, 2015 @10:41AM (#10637693)
Wolves, coyotes, domestic dogs are another example that comes up in this discussion.
Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by Turing_Machine on Friday November 27, 2015 @01:40PM (#10638329)
Yeah, all of those can interbreed, more or less. On the other side of the coin, consider dogs alone. Successful breeding between Great Danes and Chihuahuas is quite rare. :-)

The "successful breeding" metric isn't very satisfactory on any level

Re:Are Domestic and Wild Salmon Still the Same Species? by Scarblac on Friday November 27, 2015 @02:03PM (#10638418)
In high school. Once you take a slightly closer look, it completely fails all over the place (ring species, asexual reproduction, etc etc).

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem .