I don't understand the last part of this. Everything is a "variation" of
something else. If we were to use your definition we'd have one species
and call it "fish" :-) Those researchers like Larry Page didn't split the
orangethroat darter into anything; by focusing on the group of fishes
previously and incorrectly lumped together as orangethroat darters (which
everyone suspected were not all orangethroat darters) they effectively
described what an orangethroat darter is and isn't. The role
ichthyologists and scientists have is to make the best sense of what's out
there and increase our knowledge base, not to reclassify Nature in human
terms. Avoiding knowledge or preventing others from having access to it is
like burning books-- the books of the greatest Author ever.
Jay DeLong
Olympia, WA
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