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A comment on The 44 Chromosome Man. Parent comment

Re:The 44 Chromosome Man by gort on Saturday July 02, 2011 @03:33PM (#2722273)
"Species" is a vague and slightly philosophical concept, but I think an actual population of people with 44 chromosomes would have to become established before the term was applied.

"A species" is typically defined as something like "a group of individuals that can breed with each other".

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Re:The 44 Chromosome Man by hugh3 on Saturday July 02, 2011 @04:10PM (#2722332)
So if we discovered the last Tasmanian Tiger out in the wild somewhere then it wouldn't count as a species any more because it's the last one and... aww, this is too nitpicky a semantic debate even for me.
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Re:The 44 Chromosome Man by zorked on Saturday July 02, 2011 @04:35PM (#2722384)
The definition is obviously about potential: the last healthy Tasmanian Tiger could mate with another healthy Tasmanian Tiger and have baby Tasmanian Tigers.

A healthy mule can't mate with another healthy mule and have baby mules.

People who happen to be sterile or decided not to have kids can remain a part of the human species...

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Re:The 44 Chromosome Man by adrianN on Sunday July 03, 2011 @07:10AM (#2723492)
We have something like that:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/10/136029423/the-l...

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