given three OTU of trout, i need to find out if they are the same species or not.
one experiment carried out is to see if they can reproduce
successful fertilisation did occur between sperm and eggs of the different OTU when the it was artificial, milting.
the different OTU did interbreed when given no other choice , but to a lesser extent. but they still did.
finally given a choice using senses other than sight(chemical secretions), a male of one otu did choice his own female otu but occasionally went for a different OTU.
are these OTU of the same species?
my first answer is yes, because they can interbreed they must be. but i have a feeling its not that simple. i have no way to find out if the offspring are fertile, but i assume they might not be. any thoughts?
i know im not giving any real data, and that you cant possibly know. i suppose what im really asking is are there cases where different species do interbreed and produce fertile offspring?, or if you were faced with this would you say they are same species or not?
as an aside...im doing research as part of a Problem based learing, to understand evolution. on one hand i am actually doing the experiments using flash boxes and the like's but we cant go further than what the admin give us. on the other its not really a real experiments at all.