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Message: <blockquote data-quote="njlarsen" data-source="post: 1601351" data-attributes="member: 7427">whether something is oversplit or undersplit to my mind is a question of two things: personal preference and species concept. I read earlier today the introduction to AOU checklist no 7 (I think it was) where the authors pointed out the difference in interpretation that they used compared to authors of earlier versions: if there was a narrow, stable hybridization zone, earlier authors had interpreted that as evidence against two species according to the biological species concept, because their predecessors had felt that any hybridization was sign of gene flow; for this group, the same observation would indicate evidence for two species, because a narrow hybrid zone was interpreted as an essential barrier to gene flow. Their predecessors had required an absolute barrier (no hybridization what so ever which would indicate that there would be only one species of ducks in the world (my exaggerated example, not theirs)). CheersNiels</blockquote>