🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <564@pedsga.UUCP> lae@pedsga.UUCP (Leslie Ann Ellis) writes:
>I seem to recall from my Physical Anthropology course that speciation
>is defined as occuring when the parts of a population that become
>physically isolated from each other either:
>1)  Can no longer breed successfully,
>or
>2)  Produce sterile offspring.

I've heard that, but it doesn't seem consistent with current taxonomy.
What about dogs (Canis familiaris) and wolves (C. lupus) and
coyotes (C. latrans or something like that)?  Dogs interbreed
with both wolves and coyotes, and I've met several canines whose
owners claimed them to be 3/4 wolf, or 3/8 wolf, or whatever,
which suggests that the offspring of a dog/wolf cross is fertile.
Are dogs and wolves now considered to be the same species?

(I was thinking that there were several other examples of this, but
I can't seem to think of any.  And I've never heard of a wolf-coyote
cross, though that may also happen.  Maybe C. familiaris is just a
special case?)

 
..
        ...Akkana
        LaboratoryForBiologicalDynamicsAndTheoreticalMedicine, UCSD
        akkana%brain@ucsd.edu             sun!brain.ucsd.edu!akkana
 
"I think I'll take a walk.  Hmm, wonder where this wire goes?"