Question

For which of the following groups would the biological definition of species be useful? For which of the following groups would the biological definition of species be useful? fossil bacteria, which are known to have reproduced asexually asexually reproducing plant and animal species that live in the present oaks and other sexually reproducing, extant (currently living) trees fossil dinosaurs, which are known to have reproduced sexually

Answer 1

B) oaks and other sexually reproducing, extant (currently living) trees

Step-by-step explanation:

The biological species concept defines the species on the basis of their reproductive isolation. It states that when individuals are able to interbreed to produce fertile and viable progeny, they belong to the same species. The members of different biological species cannot interbreed. If they interbreed, either pre-zygotic or post-zygotic isolation mechanisms do not allow the production of fertile progeny.

Therefore, the biological species concept can be applied to the organisms that are able to reproduce sexually. The asexually reproducing organisms would not exhibit any reproductive isolation which is a key criterion to group organisms under different species. Among the given examples, biological species concept can be applied to the sexually reproducing extant trees such as oak.

Since we cannot deduce the reproductive isolation in sexually reproducing extinct species, the concept is not useful for dinosaurs which are extinct now.