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Date: | Tue, 1 Feb 2011 21:20:38 -0500 |
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I've enjoyed this thread on Smaragdia, especially since I finally got to collect my own specimens in the Florida Keys last December.
As a paleontologist I see no problem with the possibility of separate species in 5 my, especially since we already have what are considered cognate species of mollusks (conchs, murex, etc) on either side of the Central America landbridge that formed between 3 and 4 million years ago.
But I am a bit dubious about the "biological definition of a species" in light of recent records of hybrids between closely related species (even the so-called "Darwin's finches") interbreeding to produce viable offspring that could in turn become new species. Maybe that's how we got Lambis arachnoides (aka L. wheelwrighti)?
Rick Batt
North Tonawanda, NY
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Is the door then still open just a crack for the possibility of two species separated by 5 million years?
When I was a kid, the answer could have been determined by simply dropping specimens from the respective populations in an aquarium and seeing if they breed. That definition wouldn't pass muster any more, I guess.
David Kirsh
Durham, NC
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