Introduction to the main concept of the blog

 What is a hypothetical species? Concept, clarification and analysis.

   When we talk about the forms of life on earth, we cannot help but think of the infinite species of fauna and flora described by science, Up to now there are 1.5 and 2 million species of animals and plants discovered to date, Many more appear periodically and are added to the biological catalog and which are classified into various forms and parameters at a taxonomic and scientific level.

But, in the discipline there are several gaps that have not been resolved or are overlooked, among them, We have a category that has been overlooked for a long time, being placed in the cabinet of oblivion, but which, we will analyze hereThank you for reading, I hope you support and without further ado we start.

Concept: hypothetical species 

The concept of hypothetical species is a terminology coined in modern zoology, but nevertheless, This is very decadent in analysis and is almost left aside in the entire discipline, their Wikipedia articles and information pages being very very short and poor, so here we put a new emphasis for this term on abandonment:

The term hypothetical species refers to the classification of living beings of dubious affiliations, as well as a half-proven existence and that in the absence of physical evidence or a coherent pattern at a descriptive level, can only be considered potential species. 

In general, it is believed that these are possibly extinct, causing this confusion, as they may have been a separate species, a subspecies, an introduced species or a misidentification, but in the absence of copies or information it is an impossible task to verify them, Although well, in cases the identification is usually conclusive but due to the age of the case it is impossible or unprofitable to investigate, so they always remain as half species.

This classification is based on various very specific characteristics, being the following:

-species that have received a classification at the taxonomic level, but that after its classification only one specimen was found and that has not been seen since its classification oh simply, whose existence and nature can be doubted due to the lack of registration, here we can also count categories such as icnotaxon or parataxons.

-species known only from partial or fragmentary remains not optimally identified, as well as from corpses, whose DNA analyzes are inconclusive or that the DNA remains only provide basic information and do not allow us to know more and a living specimen is never found, leaving the species in the limb.

-hunted animals and collected plants that are in museums or collections of serious scientific institutions in a proven way, whose appearance and DNA show signs of being a species as such, but because in addition to the specimen collected, nothing similar has been seen and due to the time that has passed,(Most of them are remains of animals hunted in the 19th century), it is impossible to verify, or simply, whether the remains were lost.

-animals and plants known only from illustrations from reliable sources or testimonies in books or articles by serious scientists and respectable animals, as well as animals seen by scientific commissions of serious institutions.

-species whose only trace is DNA tests done on living relatives, sequencing their genome and coming across genetic remains of these mysterious variants and lost relatives who lie possibly extinct.

-beings from serious historical records where the issue of their existence is addressed in a well-described manner or which appear in archaeological records in an intricate manner, resulting in possible unknown species in representations of our ancestors.

Examples of some hypothetical species 

As an example of hypothetical species we can cite several cases from zoology, it was difficult for me to choose among my favorites, But among them we can highlight the following as examples:

Bergman's bear, proposed name ursus arctos piscator, a mysterious type of bear, resembling a huge brown bear, inhabitant of the Russian region of Kamchatka, discovered by the Swedish zoologist Sten Bergman in 1920, of which a skin and a few skulls that were lost were known, currently only a couple of photographs remain, this creature being an unsolved mystery, Due to the intricate nature of its case, similar examples could be the Andean wolf, the kting vorad or waitorike.

Another example would be the Norfolk Island partridge dove, a possible species of bird in the family Columbidae, which is of really unknown taxonomic position, because it was never studied in life and is only practically known from an illustration made by the artist John Hunter, so currently the name is invalid until it is rediscovered or its taxonomic issue clarified, although this is problematic because little or nothing is known about it, Other examples would be the Washington bird, the Caribbean parrots or the Tahitian rail.

And as an example we could also add the Maltese tiger, a mythical variety of the tiger, which was reported in China and Korea for centuries and It has been theorized that it could exist because it would not be surprising if it were a mutation like the Maltese cat, tWe could also list the woolly cheetah or the mythical giant ounces, we could also mention mysterious ancestors, like the genes of a mysterious type of canid found in the genome of southern china dogs, even unknown ancestors found in the genetics of bananas, in short, there are hundreds and hundreds of hypothetical species to know, which we will know in this project.

Thank you for reading, I hope you support and enjoy each reading you decide to take, don't forget to go to the project library, where there will be many interesting books and see our video section, and if you had questions about the examples, don't worry, soon these animals will have their own articles.