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