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This is an interesting problem: should you err on the side of creating new species every time you find a bone fragment or should you assume it is more of the sa
by sambeau 13y ago
This is an interesting problem: should you err on the side of creating new species every time you find a bone fragment or should you assume it is more of the same?
I think I come down on the side of those who create new species until sufficient evidence can be found to merge them. It strikes me as better science — a connection is, to my mind, more significant than a lack of a connection.
- jcromartie 13y agoI've seen it suggested, by paleontologists, that some people just like to put their stamp on things. It makes for a bigger story when you discover a new species, vs. just finding more bones that look more-or-less like other things in the same geo/temporal region.
- qwerta 13y agoThe problem is as always money. Finding new species gives better chances to start new excavation at some forgotten place.
- VladRussian2 13y agowell, whatever moves the science forward i'm all for it.
- bambax 13y agoTaxonomy is the art of thinking!
- masklinn 13y ago> This is an interesting problem: should you err on the side of creating new species every time you find a bone fragment or should you assume it is more of the same? That is an extant fight in taxonomy, and one which has been going on for more than a century and a half: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters > splitters make very small units – their critics say that if they can tell two animals apart, they place them in different genera … and if they cannot tell them apart, they place them in different species. … Lumpers make large units – their critics say that if a carnivore is neither a dog nor a bear, they call it a cat.
- comrade_ogilvy 13y agoHeck, how to classify even existing living and breathing specimens is not always clear. Genetic sequencing has resolved some, but not all, such questions. Fundamentally, there is no obvious and unambiguous definition of "species". It is a functional definition that is highly useful, but it is not exactly predictive is every case under the sun. There will always be confusion on the margins, because the natural world is sometimes messy that way.