What is a species?

Subtopic 1 Variation

What do these animals have in common?

What do they all have in common?

• They are all dogs• They are all members of the same

species – Canis lupus• The canis lupus species also

includes wolves, therefore they can interbreed with wolves.

Testing for the same species

• Does a horse and a zebra look like they could come from the same species?

A zebrorse

• A zebrorse is the offspring of a female horse and a male zebra

• The zebrorse is STERILE which means it cannot reproduce

Sterile offspring

• Sterile offspring is the result of two SIMILAR BUT NOT IDENTICAL species reproducing.

• Therefore the definition of a species is..• A group of living organisms which can

interbreed to produce fertile offspring

Further examples