Important Characteristics of a Species
The important characteristics of a species may be summarised as follows.
- All the members whether present in one or more populations found in different and even remote areas of the globe are derived from a common ancestor.
- The members resemble one another more than they resemble individuals of other species.
- There is a complete anatomical similarity.
- All the members of a species have a similar karyotype.
- There is a broad similarity in morphological characters.
Speciation and Evolution
Through the process of reproduction, individuals give rise to new individuals that are similar (not the same) to the parents. This similarity in progeny or offspring or child is due to the transmission of characters or traits from parents to their progeny. The transfer of characters from parents to offspring is known as heredity and the process through which characters or traits pass from one generation to another is called inheritance.
But, according to practical basis offspring are never a true copy of their parents, e.g., in a sugarcane field that are differences among individual plants, similarly in all human beings have different characteristics, complexion, height, eye colors, etc., these differences among the individuals of a species are called variations. Variations in plants are much lesser than in human beings.
The long-term accumulation of variations leads to evolving of a new species and the process is called evolution. It is a complex process and occurs over a long period of time.