Species is a fundamental concept in modern biology, the building blocks of Earth’s vast and diverse biosphere. While biology’s principal function is naming, grouping, and defining species, the concept opens a window into the history of evolution.
The term is a Latin word meaning “a particular sort, kind, or type.” Species originated from the Indo-European root term spek, meaning ‘to observe,’ the language of Japheth, one of Noah’s three sons.
Variations drive evolution, theoretically. In Darwin Discovering the Tree of Life, evolution scientist Niles Eldredge at the American Museum of Natural History applied the V.I.S.T.A. acronym to explain Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The “V” signifies variation followed by inheritance, selection, time, and adaptation, known as the five pillars of natural selection.
The selection of variations plays a pivotal role in driving Darwin’s theory of evolution. In the sixth edition of the Origin of Species, while “natural selection” appears 408 times, the term “variations” appear 303 times.
Three years into the pandemic, the origin of COVID-19 is still controversial. Two leading theories are under investigation: natural selection process or genetically engineered – each with vastly different implications. The phylogenetics of coronaviruses is the key to the COVID-19 origin dilemma and gaining insights into the theory of evolution.
Coronaviruses are RNA, not DNA viruses. RNA viruses are associated with causing the common cold, influenza, mumps, and measles; coronaviruses in humans can cause respiratory tract infections ranging from no symptoms, mild symptoms to a cytokine storm resulting in organ failure and death in humans.
The platypus puzzles naturalists and scientists alike. While its bizarre characteristics seem to defy a natural explanation, the platypus may be a classic transitional link. Like a reptile, it lays eggs, yet, it nurses with milk without nipples. As one of the least understood living mammals, and unlike any other known species, it has ten sex chromosomes. The platypus produces venom, like a reptile, and uses electroreception, like a shark – a puzzle known as the platypus paradox dilemma.
That’s not all; the list of oddities goes on. To gain an understanding of this evolution icon, scientists have long-awaited insights from its genome. This January’s journal Nature reports on the most comprehensive investigation of the platypus genome ever performed.
Public schools are required to teach evolution as a valid scientific theory. Interestingly enough, not a single science organization in the twenty-first century has successfully developed a scientific consensus on evolution.
Consensus development is a privileged responsibility of science organizations. A scientific consensus, while not synonymous with absolute truth, gives non-scientists guidance to gain scientific understanding.
Eighteen science organizations currently have a consensus statement on climate change, spanning from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to the American Medical Association (AMA). A scientific consensus on climate change, from leading science organizations, while silent on a scientific consensus on evolution, is rather telling.
