Is it possible to create a species by artificial selection? Scientists in South Africa believe it possible. They are working on a project to re-create the extinct species of zebra called the quagga. The quagga is similar to a horse at the front but has no stripes on it's hind quarters.
If scientists can re-create the quagga it raises very interesting questions about the nature of the biological unit called the "species". The success the scientists have experienced so far suggests that the pool of natural variation is sufficient to produce a quagga by artificial selection.
If the scientists succeed they will have demonstrated that the species known as the quagga was simply a population of zebras. A population which had a particular combination of genes from the parent population. That combination marked them out, giving them a distinctive identity.
Links - BBC programme on the quagga