I don't get it

[Detlor Poultry]

Classification is weird. It makes no logical sense. You have a hundred or so genera of Grasses that nobody can tell apart, and then over 2,000 plants are called Euphorbia, ranging from vines and herbaceous perennials to trees and creepers and little stonecrop things. You'd think there would be a more logical flow to 'what's actually distinct'. :/

 

[digitS']

I think we may be getting to that, DP. Altho' we still may not be able to easily see the differences.

The genetic testing of all sorts of things seems to be progressing at good speed. Soon, we will be able to identify some real degrees of differences between many living organisms.

I was reading something a year or 2 ago about Sumatran tigers and how they are really quite distinct from other tigers, even ones just across "the straights" in Malaysia. And, there was something else about sabre-tooth tigers and how the fossils of different individuals only appear similar and they are not just different species but very widely different genetically. They only have an appearance that make us think they are similar critters.

So, it might work both ways - differences may be more clear genetically speaking but we may have to ignore the reality of what we can see with our lying eyes.

Steve

 

[Detlor Poultry]

Yes, I've read about Sabre Tooth tigers. There was one type that paleontologists don't believe is the same type of animal.... this one case is very absurd and senseless.

Homotherium, the Scimitar cat, is not classified as a cat, because the 7 million year old fossils are missing one earbone unique to felines. A bone smaller than your pinky nail. You would think, if indeed it is 7 million years old, that some tiny bones may go missing. And for that reason, without genetic testing as far as I know, they do not consider a type of cat.

And then you have things like fish and chickens.

The Lake trout and the Speckled trout may be subspecies of the same species, although they are totally different, and Grey, Ceylon and Red Junglefowl may be the same species. Again they look different. You never can tell with these things I guess. There is just more than we know about.