James Mallet is the Galton Laboratory, Dept of Genetics and Biometry, 4 Stephenson Way, London, UK NW1 2HE.
Trends Ecol Evol. 1995 Jul;10(7):294-9. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(95)90031-4.
One hundred and thirty-six years since On the Origin of Species 3., biologists might be expected to have an accepted theory of speciation. Instead, there is, if anything, more disagreement about speciation than ever before. Even more surprisingly, 60 years after the biological species concept, in which species were considered to be reproductive communities isolated from other such communities, we still do not all accept a common definition of what a species is. And yet, if speciation is to be any different from ordinary evolution, we must have a clear definition of species. The emerging solution to the species problem is an updated, genetic version of Darwin's own definition. This definition is useful and is already being used in taxonomy, in biodiversity studies and in evolution.
136 年过去了，自从《物种起源》出版以来，生物学家本应该已经有了一个被广泛接受的物种形成理论。然而，现在对于物种形成的争议比以往任何时候都多。更令人惊讶的是，在生物学物种概念提出 60 年后，该概念认为物种是与其他物种隔离的生殖群体，但我们仍然没有一个共同的物种定义。然而，如果物种形成与普通进化不同，我们就必须对物种有一个明确的定义。物种问题的新兴解决方案是对达尔文自己的定义进行更新和遗传化。这个定义很有用，已经在分类学、生物多样性研究和进化中得到了应用。
