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I've been watching nature shows on Netflix (Wildest series) and different animals of the same "family" are actually different species.

e.g. Asian elephants vs African elephants. Asian elephants are much smaller than their African counterparts.

Also with monkeys, different locations have their own species. Take langurs for example (see link below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_langur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LangurMap.svg

Just in the Indian subcontinent, there are many species of the same "gray langur".

In saying all that, how many species are there of modern day humans? It can't be just 1 homo sapiens it's quite obvious there are differences based on location. (Africans have darker skin. East asians have distinctly-shaped eyes and etc). Monkeys have lots of species even of the same "family" (see example above) and we're also primates.

thoughts? thanks

AMR
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mrjayviper
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    Nope, all modern humans are one species, even one subspecies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomically_modern_human). I suggest reading on taxonomy to understand the terms species and family (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomic_rank). Remember that these distinct classifications are concepts developed by us and appliead to biological entities which actually don't form such discrete structure. – rg255 Dec 01 '15 at 07:02
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    By asking a question and then immediately ruling out a possible answer, which in this case is actually the factual answer to your question, you are giving an indication that you may not be open to an answer that would be contrary to your own ideas. Think about editing your question and rewording it in such a way as to remove the impression that you may not be willing to accept the answer if it is contrary to your view. Thanks. – AMR Dec 01 '15 at 08:14
  • It can't be just 1 homo sapiens. Guess again. A common definition of a species is that members of the same species group can produce viable and fertile offspring. Think about how that works with humans. – James Dec 01 '15 at 08:44
  • Why would skin color be an "obvious" reason anyway? We don't say that about other animals that come with different skin or fur color. Likewise with eye shape. – YviDe Dec 01 '15 at 09:50
  • Also related: Do humans have enough biological differences to be grouped into races or subspecies? – fileunderwater Dec 01 '15 at 11:11
  • To James: then you have ligers – mrjayviper Dec 02 '15 at 00:32

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Not only is there only one species of human, genetically we don't even divide into different races. Pick any male human on the planet, at random, and any woman from anywhere else on the planet, also at random. They are just as likely to be capable of bearing children as any two people from the same village. The whole concept of a species embraces the concept of 'continuous reproductive continuity', so your 'obviously different human species' is profoundly mistaken.

Gordon Stanger
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    Nice answer, it could be good to add some sources too which would both allow further reading and offer support to your answer :) though I'm not sure I'd bother in this case if I were you - looks like the question is headed for closure and deletion – rg255 Dec 01 '15 at 20:45