The concept of species is an artificial human concept that has very little basis in reality if you look at it very closely. The only really accurate definition of species is that it is whatever an eminent taxonomist says it is.
Exactly, and that's a huge stumbling block for a lot of evolution deniers. It's even true for zoological classes. For example, there is no logical reason to consider birds to be of a different class than reptiles, but we arbitrarily do so. Birds look quite a bit different from other reptiles only because the vast majority of their closest reptile cousins were wiped out by a global catastrophe at the end of the Cretaceous period, so they seem to stand quite a bit apart from their nearest surviving non-bird reptile brethren.
Last edited by The_Real_Hawkeye; 11/18/09. Reason: corrected a taxonomic error
