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What is the meaning of "among-species"?

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?


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AussieInBg profile picture 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.
exRanger profile picture 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.
  • mmajid profile picture 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.