Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: bobfl42 on 01/04/2013 12:43:30
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At what point does a new specie evolved? We are used to seeing various timelines where different species come into existence and then evolve into something else, or in the case of the dinosaurs just disappear, birds excepted.
It is my understanding, so correct me if I'm wrong, that to define as specie, two different species cannot successfully interbreed. But two different sub specie can interbreed but the offspring is sterile. For example, horse and donkey = mule which is sterile.
I am particularly interested in the hominids. Take for example Homo erectus we are told that he became extinct, I have no problem there. But it is he evolved into such species as Homo sapiens and the and other Homo species. At what point did this occur? How long would this evolution take? Is it possible that the evolution was slow enough that in my example Homo erectus did not actually die out but just gradually changed?
Could it be that we are all the same species and just variations of the one Homo species?
Robert…