Question #658c1
1 Answer
Either the species classification or the phylogenetic classification, depending on the scientist's preference.
Explanation:
The species concept, which states that a group of individuals can occur together in time and space, mate successfully and produce viable offspring, has been the most commonly used choice to classify animals. It relied heavily on morphological and ecological observation. Because of modern day technology, we are able to use DNA to determine phylogenetic relationships. This entails that as soon as there is a metapopulational variation in the molecular data, it is considered a new species. Molecular phylogenetisists use morphological, physiological and genetic data in combination to construct phylogenies to make it more concise.
There are some instances where the phylogenetic classification doesn't hold to species classification, for instance in birds populations. Some populations overlap slightly, but phylogenetic classification would separate the two populations whereas the species classification would considered them one since their overlapping individuals produce viable offspring. Phyogenetic classification is obviously much better in separating species which look very similar and are just considered phenotypic variation, e.g. the clouded leopards.
In either case the universal taxonomic hierarchy holds: Domain > Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Specie.
