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Ananya Shree

Class 11th
Biology
2 years ago

Try to collect all the currently accepted meanings for the word ‘species’. Discuss with your teacher the meaning of species in the case of higher plants and animals on one hand and bacteria on the other hand.

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Muskan Anand

2 years ago

Species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding aid in producing fertile offspring. Sometimes more precise or differing measures such as similarity of DNA, morphology o,^ecological niche are used to define the basis of species. In case of animals, the name of species is defined by the specific name or the specific epithet. For example, gray wolves belong to the species Canis lupus, golden Jackals to Cam’s aureus etc. Both of them belong to same genus Canis, but species name varies. But species name of plant is only called species epithet. The ‘specific name’ in botany is always the combination of genus name and species epithet such as saccharum in Acer saccharum (Sugar maple). But bacteria are grouped under four categories based on their shape – spherical, rod-shaped, comma and spiral shaped and species of bacteria is according to their shapes. Thus the meaning of species in higher organism and bacteria are different.

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