On species and speciation with reference to the fishes

The nature of species and the processes in which they participate are subjects of continuing debate among evolutionary biologists. I begin by examining how ichthyologists treat species empirically. Such treatments provide a pattern of species and their relationships over time and space. I suggest that this empirical record points to a predominant mode of speciation: vicariant, Model I, allopatric speciation. I also suggest that species are real and that they are individuals. There is a single species concept, the evolutionary species concept (ESC), that best captures the way we think about fish species. This concept is also well integrated with the manner in which species are treated in Phylogenetic Systematics and with the philosophical concept that species are particulars rather than universals.