Fw: Re: Definition of "species"
mbpi at juno.com
mbpi at juno.com
Fri Sep 7 20:57:17 EDT 2001
Drat! I always mean to send my comments to the list, but I send them to
the individual instead... (I know Ron can take it...)
M.B.P.
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <mbpi at juno.com>
To: gatrelle at tils-ttr.org
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 19:45:34 -0500
Subject: Re: Definition of "species"
Message-ID: <20010907.194653.-196427.1.mbpi at juno.com>
It's all very simple and clear to me: "Species" is an arbitrary "common
name" applied to a number of individuals with shared characteristics. It
really doesn't matter what those shared characteristics are: the
definition can change with the perception, study and research of the
person(s) equating it. Hence all the disaggreements :-)
Mary Beth Prondzinski
USA
On Fri, 7 Sep 2001 05:44:55 -0400 "Ron Gatrelle" <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>
writes:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: 1_iron
> To: Leps-L
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 4:40 AM
> Subject: Definition of "species"
>
> Snips of some good stuff.
>
> Until you get your act together, I shall deem a species to be
> defined by
> fertile offspring, and I shall deny there is such a thing as a
> subspecies.
> How can there be under the above definition?
> ____________________________
>
> Jim, you have hit a clear note. Precisely. It is the lack of a
> clear understanding of what a species is - that prevents some from
> having a clue to what subspecies are. The first thing is that there
> is nothing "sub" about them. Actually, they are just the opposite.
> They are that "new" part of the species that is going up to the next
> reproductively isolated step on the ladder toward becoming another
> species. No new species has ever come into its own without first
> being a "sub" (new part) of something else.
>
> This is the third Law of Evolution. "To come into being an
> organism must first exist as part of something else. This something
> else must be a stabilized replicating entity. The advancing part
> becomes the new organism." Don't even ask what Ron's first Law of
> Evolution is. Most won't even want to hear it as they would probably
> get upset by it. This law would then apply to single organisms or
> groups of them. One individual or group replicating after its kind
> gives rise to another individual or group(s) replicating after
> its(their) kind. This also means that all living things exist as
> either past parental parts (subs) or advancing parts (subs) of the
> entire biota.
> Ron
>
> There are only three Laws of Evolution.
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