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Ants that seem to defy biology – They lay eggs that hatch into another species

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
429 points sampo | 1 comments | 19 Sep 25 12:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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jibal ◴[20 Sep 25 00:59 UTC] No.45308716[source]▶
Biology is not "defied", whatever that could possibly mean, and there's no need to rethink the concept of species--there's a sizable literature laying out how this is a fuzzy vague concept that humans use to categorize things but that it doesn't "carve nature at its joints"--nature doesn't have joints.
replies(1): >>45310274 #
1. gitaarik ◴[20 Sep 25 04:06 UTC] No.45310274[source]▶
Biology as defined by humans.

This is the third paragraph of the article:

> “The classic concept says that [a species] is a group of organisms with similar physical and genetic characteristics that can reproduce with each other in nature and produce fertile offspring,” says Xim Cerdá, an ecologist at Doñana Biological Station in Spain who was not involved with the research, to Miguel Ángel Criado at El País. “But it turns out that’s not the case; two species are needed here. We’re going to have to rethink the concept.”

The article doesn't talk about something like "carve nature at its joints"