What is it with new science? It's weird!! Not too long ago I found out that the Malagasy civets have been placed in a family outside the Viverridae. Yet I looked around tonight, and Lynx are now listed under the genus Lynx!! Probably not the only feline whose sub-generic rank has been brought up to full generic either!! It SUCKS!!!! Personally, I still, and will always, classify the malagasy civets in the Viverrid family! Mongooses too. That's how I was brought up to believe, that is how I'll always believe. They've been classified that way on my Metazoic site. And I don't know who's idea it was to classify Felis lynx as Lynx lynx! Personally, if you ask me, ALL felines, except cheetahs, deserve nothing more than to be classed under the genus Felis. Everyone calls all of them "cats" anyway. That's how I always have and always will classify them. I just don't see how the scientific community can separate all Viverrids the way they have, and still keep the feline family in tact, separated only by generic names. You've seen one feline species, you've seen them ALL!! There is NO variety whatsoever in the feline family. Viverrids just happen to have a great deal more variety. Anyway, I will never understand the new scientific classifications. Same deal is with birds. Now, everyone wants to list all old world passerines in the family Sylviidae. Bad enough when they had to merge the babblers into that family. Now, they want to class everything in with them.
You know what I blame all this on? These new DNA studies out now. I'm surprised apes have been merged into the family with humans. Very surprised!! Not all apes share our characteristics. Only chimps and orangs are as smart as we are. Gorillas can't do anything really worth a damn. LORD knows I love gorillas, but compared to other apes, they are dumb as dirt!! Yet they are one of the most spectacular and majestic animals on the planet!! Shoot! When it comes to being so graceful and so majestic, gorillas even beat out lions by a long-shot!! But that really has nothing to do with the subject here. So I kinda wonder, why have gibbons not been placed in the same family as apes and humans? Why have red and giant pandas been separated from each other, and not put back in the same family with raccoons? Why haven't the dwarf lemurs merged with the typical Lemurids? Why are bushbabies more often classed with the lorises and pottos than in a class of their own? One thing I have learned about modern classification styles, everyone's is different. It's all a matter of opinion. I personally see no reason to separate the malagasy civets from the viverrids, and in the same light I never classify any felines out of the genus Felis, except the cheetahs. Shoot! I even classify walrus in with the sea lion family. Some authorities agree with me, some don't. But then, you're looking at a girl who classifies polar bears as a separate genus from brown bears, though I may have to rethink that if they have been known to breed together and produce fertile offspring. But then why is it they can and a mule, which is a cross between a horse and an ass, can't? Mules cannot produce offspring, yet horses and asses are both in the same genus, just like polar bears and brown bears. In horses and asses, the only difference really is in the ears. But I see polar bears being so different from other bears. Polar bears are more streamlined, with a flatter head and longer legs, plus they are amphibius. Even their growl is a little bit different, but that could be due to size. A panther's roar is really nothing more than a low-pitched meow.
Well, that's all that was on my mind. I just hate the modern classification methods. I'll always believe it SUCKS!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment