In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. In scientific classification, a species is assigned a two-part name, treated as Latin. The genus is listed first (with its leading letter capitalized), followed by a second term. For example, humans belong to the genus Homo, and are in the species Homo sapiens. The name of the species is the whole binomial, not just the second term (which may be called specific epithet, for plants, or specific name, for animals). The binomial, later formalized in the biological codes of nomenclature, was introduced as the standard by Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700s and as a result is sometimes called the "Linnaean nomenclature". At that time, the chief biological theory was that species represented independent acts of creation by God, and were therefore considered objectively real and immutable.

Since the advent of the theory of evolution, the conception of species has undergone vast changes in biology; however no consensus on the definition of the word has yet been reached. The most commonly cited definition of "species" was first coined by Ernst Mayr. By this definition, called the biological species concept or isolation species concept, species are "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups". However, many other species concepts are also used (see other definitions of species below).

As a soft guide, however, the numbers of currently identified species can be broken down as follows ^*: 287,655 plants; 10,000 lichens; 1,190,200 invertebrates (including 950,000 insects); and 57,739 vertebrates, including 28,500 fishes, 5,743 amphibians, 8,163 reptiles, 9,917 birds, and 5,416 mammals.

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Conservation and Endangered Species - Twitter Search

RT @JohnKingCNN: http://twitpic.com/tshik - Bird is a nene - state bird and an endangered species. Wind farm sits on conservation land o ...
katiefrommaui (Katie Inamasu) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:16:55 -0000
RT @JohnKingCNN: http://twitpic.com/tshik - Bird is a nene - state bird and an endangered species. Wind farm sits on conservation land o ...
Conservation group wants more action on endangered species listings and wants to sue the Obama administration, http://tiny.cc/PhWvl
stichtingspots (Simone Eckhardt) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:39:47 -0000
Conservation group wants more action on endangered species listings and wants to sue the Obama administration, http://tiny.cc/PhWvl

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