Martian human species

[Ken Kinman]

>One is jumping the gun a bit about making Mars man a new species.  Whether
>or not, when and if humankind establishes a population on Mars becomes a
>new species, will depend on the degree of gene flow between Earth and
>Martian populations.
>don
***************
Don,
     Mars mankind evolving as a new species was just a hypothetical
"creation" or example to help illustrate how cladists and eclecticists
differ in their classificatory and philosophical approaches.  With a mobile
species like Homo sapiens, budding off a new species would be very unlikely
in this Solar System, and would take thousands of generations in any case
(unless genetic engineering supersedes the natural processes of speciation).
     Anyway, I found the exchange with Tom quite helpful, even if we still
don't agree on which is the best and/or useful perspective.   I still think
a middle ground is possible and desirable, but only time will tell.
    In the meantime (to paraphrase the title of a popular book on the
relationships between the sexes), it seems like it continues to be a case
of:
  "Cladists are from Mars, Eclecticists are from Venus."
                            Cheers, Ken Kinman
                               LOL    :-)

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