What Even Is A Species?

If you know about the species Lacrymaria olor, then you know what you’re getting when you see it under a microscope. It has a distinct shape, a distinct way of life—the combination of its own genetics and its surrounding environment.

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[joshuasims]

(Taxonomy) provides us with a language to describe the world around us, so that we can make comparisons and find patterns.
Perfectly said. Theoretical tools aren’t distillations of Aristotelian truth, they are technologies that make collaborative science possible on a large scale.

[LimeyLassen]

I feel like the old school Linnaean system is a good fit for vertebrate animals but the farther you stray from there the more wobbly it gets. Even insect taxonomy is cracking at the seams, so I can't imagine how the bacteria people are making sense of it.

[kalicharanhck]

I have been subscribed to microcosmos for a very long time now and I cherish every video that comes up!

[mr.spinoza]

I wrote a lot about this concept of "human whims" in "defining species" in my Philosophy PhD thesis.

[manuchi_herrjea]

So good! Never had this point of view, this way to think about species. So nurturing. Thank you for sharing this!!

[fltchr]

I was going to give a thought about what makes a species and then I did some searching around. There are a number of ways to define a species. Some are specific to a field of study and some attempt a generalization. Some focus across organisms and some focus across time. All of them attempt to categorize life. So, what Deboki said.

[evilsharkey]

I’ve just gotta say that the “Lacrymaria microcosmosii”, or whatever that little critter was, is really cute! It reminds me of a button quail.

[etiennem.]

"...at the end of the day species are only a little bit about the organisms we are looking at, they are really more about us and how we see the world"

i fell in awe with all of your words in this journey. Thank you.

[Shnarfbird]

I am surprised that the diverse morphology some individual species can reach wasn't mentioned

[PetrosSyrak]

This was an excellent video essay... Thank you for you time and effort! :)

[helmaschine]

I Love Pallas cats. So FLUFFY and such good hunters!

[nicholas]

Truly fascinating. How does it stretch so much? What is that green critter you can see gliding around so gracefully at 9:58?

[critiqueofthegothgf]

'species' being much more broad and vague than we've been led to believe is something I find very heartwarming. all extant lifeforms are transitional. continuously changing, evolving, adapting; thus blurring the lines between each life form. where we draw the line is arbitrary and serves as a tool to better our understanding as humans. what makes it all the more beautiful is how nature continues to deconstruct and break through the boxes we attempt to put them in.

[biomuseum]

Hey guys! Thanks for the content
I wanted to ask if you or some microbiology enthusiast would recommend me to read the book “explore the world using Protozoa”? 🤔

[kencory]

These images are so beautiful and weird that I can't imagine how they haven't entered into my dreams (and nightmares). Maybe it's the lovely ambient music.

[ReaverTheSurvivalist]

I remember taking a break from this channel because it gave me an intense existential crisis at some point, but now I understand that you kinda need those from time to time hahaha.

[ethantomkins]

Love the positivity around the new narrator!

[shifter]

I love it when we can see the cell membrane texture

[Regfife]

Has anyone ever tracked a single-celled species genetic changes in real-time? For example, you've got an amoeba, it splits, the two amoebas have the same genetic sequence, those two spit, one out of the four has a mutation that sets it apart from the other clones, it splits, and starts a new genetic line. How often does that happen?

[strifera]

Is species as the term is used for sexual life even a useful concept for non-sexual and especially unicellular life? I would have to imagine convergent evolution and polymorphisms combined with the limited range of traits being dealt with at smaller scales would make differentiating species a fool's errand. You could categorize life by a set of codified traits, but there would be no guarantee of closeness of relation based upon those traits.

A genetics based approach would at least offer consistency, but differentiating species based upon some degree of genetic separation would in no way be comparable to how species are defined and classed with sexual life. It really seems like trying apply a system to an environment it wasn't defined for. I don't really see that we can or should bother.