I grew up hearing that the main indicator of a species was that they only reproduced with one another. But Neanderthals and Humans cross bred. And they’re separate species. And in captivity Lions and Tigers can breed, but they’re obviously different species. Like I guess I’m just confused where the line gets drawn when deciding what is and isn’t a different species.
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The easy answer is, that there is no real answer. There are numerous definitions for the concept of species, some are exclusive and some are inclusive and they all depend on which trait you personally believe is most important.
If you take Genetics as a basis, you might have two populations which have striking differences in their genome, but look exactly the same and if you take Morphology as a basis, you might find two populations looking completely different but are genetically nearly identical.
Even the often used definition of „being able to produce fertile offsprings“ can be tricky. If two populations can produce fertile offspring but it will never naturally occur, due to e.g. different mating behavior or geological barriers, are they already different species?
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