Specific Characters
Abstract
DR. A. R. WALLACE, in his extremely interesting paper on ``The Problem of Utility,'' lately published in Linn. Soc. Journ.-Zool., vol. xxv., arrives at the conclusion (p. 486) that ``every species (of the higher animals at all events) will usually possess at least three peculiarities : in the first place, it must exhibit some difference of structure or function adapting it to new conditions; secondly, some distinction of colour, form, or peculiar ornament serving as distinctive recognition-marks; and, thirdly, the physiological peculiarity of some amount of infertility when crossed with allied species. The first two constitute its `specific characters.'''
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- March 1897
- DOI:
- 10.1038/055414e0
- Bibcode:
- 1897Natur..55..414C