Super species
In the systematics of biology ( cladistics ), a group of several monophyletic species with the same or similar characteristics, which can be diagnosed differently and whose areas of distribution border one another ( parapatric distribution ), are referred to as super species or species group . However, there is no or only limited gene exchange along their contact zones. In some cases, similar, geographically separated species ( allopatric distribution ), in which reproductive isolation can only be assumed, are combined into one superspecies.
A superspecies thus represents a taxonomic intermediate stage between species and genus that is supplemented in special cases .
The forerunner of the concept of super-species is Otto Kleinschmidt's "circle of forms" . Ernst Mayr did not introduce the term “super species” until 1931 ; the meaning of the new term originally corresponded exactly to the meaning of Kleinschmidt's circle of forms in taxonomic terms. The meaning of superspecies, which is common today, differs somewhat from Mayr's, as the term as well as the species concept itself have since been subject to a change in meaning. The distinction between a superspecies and a polytypic species, i.e. a species with several subspecies , is difficult and controversial in some cases.
See also
literature
- Siegfried Eck: The development of super-specific terms in zoological taxonomy since the turn of the century . In: Biologische Rundschau 16, 1978, pp. 119-132.
- Hans-Peter Gensichen: Otto Kleinschmidt's theory of shapes: zoogeography, systematics, evolutionary research, anthropology . In: Biologische Rundschau 17, 1979, pp. 73-84.