Eduard, Kevin, and others...

All of the efforts of humans to define, or agree on,
what a species is -- or isn't -- seem misdirected when
one considers that the fundamental desire in Science is
to _describe_ Nature as it exists.

The "species" already exists many times over in Nature.
Describing all of the aspects of how a species functions
will be an arduous, frustrating, and essentially impossible
task. We humans don't like being stymied so we "tell"
Nature how to appear. That makes us feel better but doesn't
change the facts in Nature itself.

Concering the cowries in particular, there is the enigma
of the crossbreeding between Cypraea schilderorum and C.
sulcidentata in Hawaii. It has been known for decades that
this is occurring, but no one wants to address it, although
Lorenz does mention it briefly in his "Worldwide Cowries."
We humans can haggle amongst ourselves about what species
and sub-species might be, yet the facts exist in Nature,
still to be discovered.

The argument that conchological features be leading indicators
in describing 'specific' traits is valid and important.
The work is at hand... Describe how species function in
Nature. If that is accomplished, much of what remains will
very likely fall into place naturally.

Aloha,

Bob Dayle
http://www.cowrys.org


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