Re: En: species, subspecies, strains, populations, races etc.

[Frauley/Elson <fraulels@minet.ca>]

Hi,
I'd love to be in a different species from Maggie Thatcher and Augusto
Pinochet, but it ain't gonna happen ... that is, unless I make the
definition and then believe in it... hmm
To me, that's what 'species' comes down to, to a certain point, - an
artificial human construct. At best, it's to hopefully help us
understand how life-forms evolved, but, we make it, we break it.
I sometimes wonder if the whole discussion revolves around a past
mindset - ie, all animals were made like this in a week so let's make a
list of them so we can know what happened. Now we know they're still
"happening', but we can't always get around that.
Whether agas are reclassed as 17 species might affect my chronic
inability to spell agassizii, but it won't change much else. I'm still
perplexed by panduro with no male tail spots, njisseni where the females
have no green and all the gradations in between. It's fun to think
about, but let's leave it at that.
Gary

I'll take my flames off list, please?



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