What is the meaning of "among-species"? For instance, what does it mean if I say "among-species similarities"?
Is it the synonym of "within-species" or not?
PS: Find free English learning lessons here: Learning lesson: Collocations with pay — After as an adverb — Bahamas Timeline — English words of Arabic origin
- mmajidSeptember 2019
أعط أجوبة
AussieInBgAugust 2020 Short answer: both are synonymous because both describe an association of some attribute for each species in a group of species. However, "within-species" is a much stronger association than "among-species". Much longer answer: There is a subtle yet important difference between the terms "among-species" and "within-species". First point to note is that "among-species"/"among species" definitely gets used by real working scientists, e.g. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ecog.03641 "Among-species"/"among species" - you are referring usually to a cluster of species grouped together by some common attribute for which a trend can be seen. Take a look at the title for the paper of the above URL: "Among‐species overlap in rodent body size distributions predicts species richness along a temperature gradient". Here, the species cluster is "rodents". The attribute that rodent species as a group should have is that body size and body temperature are related - and show a trend according to how big the rodent species is, but is not going to be a perfect relationship because you are going to get some significant distribution/statistical scatter. "within-species" would suggest a much stronger relationship of some parameter for members of a species cluster. For example, a "within-species attribute" of different species of sheep are that they have hooves, big molars for chewing grass and they grow a woolly coat or hair. It's something definitive for all sheep and it doesn't really vary. The scientists who wrote that paper I refer to deliberately chose "Among-species" to indicate that there is a trend rather than there being some "law" about rodent size and rodent body temperature. In general, the difference between the prepositions "among/amongst" (another debate about "among" vs "amongst", not going into that and "inside/within/in" is that when you use a preposition like "among", you are weakening the association between members of the group compared to using "in" or such an associated preposition - which makes the association much stronger. |
exRangerSeptember 2019 "among-species" hasn't any specific meaning, it's a bit of a mash-up of terminology. "Within-species" is the correct way of expressing the concept to which you are alluding. |
mmajidSeptember 2019 Sorry for asking again, I just want to make sure that I asked my question correctly?
I am talking about some characteristics which can be found, for example, in sheep, monkeys, and humans.
Can I use the term "within-species similarities" for them?
Does not "within-species similarities" mean that there are some features that can be found in members of only one species?
Thanks.