Biologists have been baffled by it. It’s a fundamental question that they have been asking for a long time, and the discussion continued with Helen James at this year’s Scifest Africa, when she asked the question: when is a species a species?
Biologists have been baffled by it. It’s a fundamental question that they have been asking for a long time, and the discussion continued with Helen James at this year’s Scifest Africa, when she asked the question: when is a species a species?
The art gallery at the 1820 Settlers Monument was booked out with chattering school children as they prepared for the first of two talks on speciation.
The talks, which coincide with the International Year of Biodiversity, stemmed from the early realisation that living organisms are not static, but evolve over time.
James focused on issues like what defines a species and how to distinguish between new species and known species.
James is a freshwater biologist at the Albany Museum who specialises in mayflies, a group of aquatic insects, but her talk covered a range of specimens such as dragonflies, silk worms, arthropods and plants.
She also discussed fossils and backtracked to the days of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace in an attempt to shed more light on the origin of the term “species”.
As a biologist, James’ work is based on finding new and different species. She has discovered 13 new species of a single family of mayflies and has studied the variation and relationships among the different
groups.
“We need to understand the diversity of organisms, why they are so diverse and how they change over time,” said James.
“Speciation is strange; it’s not concrete, just like science is not concrete, but it is a fundamental we should all know. Speciation is a cornerstone of all biodiversity.”
The second talk on speciation will be on Sunday at 12pm in the art gallery on the ground floor of the Monument.
