ABSTRACT
The prevailing opinion is that there is a real entity in the species but whether this can be defined to satisfy all plant and animal groups is problematical. Therefore, since Genesis implied that the kinds or species were stable units, the Christian became an ardent defender of the fixity of species. The task of defining the “species” is one of formidable proportions. Such is the nature of the task that many have been led to deny the reality of the species. A somewhat improved version of the interbreeding species concept is that of Mayr. “Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.” In general, the polytypic species has led to the lumping of many varieties, previously described as distinct species, into only a few species. Such a concept applied to man would lead to the inclusion of all living and fossil man into one or at most two species.
