∞ generated and posted on 2016.08.21 ∞
Collection of organisms that are more likely to exchange hereditary material among themselves, such as in the course of sexual reproduction, than they are likely to exchange hereditary material with other collections of organisms.
A species can also be described as a group of organisms that share the same gene pool, or at least have similar access to that gene pool. Much of my hedging in making these statements stems from the fact that not all organisms reproduce sexually but nonetheless consist of species.
Note that numerous definitions of species exist (a.k.a., species concepts), all of which describe some kind of similarity within a species along with dissimilarity in comparison to other species. For example, members of the same species tend to "look" more similar as well as compete over the same resources more directly. In particular, see biological species concept.