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[Siegfried]

@sanjay   I agree with you regarding continental drift and natural environmental changes clearly have a direct effect on evolution. 

That is what makes polar bears better adapted to arctic conditions than brown bears are.  Those two different species are distinct from each other resulting from an organic natural cause ie. their differing environments.  

I question the CAUSE of the current subspecies of Panthera.  Are the lions in eastern Africa different than the lions in western Africa for any reason OTHER than all the people in between them?  Isn't it the same with Bengal and South China tigers?  Different leopard subspecies? 

It seems these subspecies might be more a result of what could be looked at as an inorganic artificial human created cause.... isolating populations within the same evolved species being caused by nothing but man's expansion.

For example, I don't doubt for a second that there are real genetic differences between the population of pumas isolated in the state of Florida when compared with the pumas that live in the western US.  However, I want to know if they result from the direct effect of the human settlement of North America. 

I therefore merely question the importance of conservation based on maintaining what might be MAN MADE subspecies created by and maintained by man.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I wanted to directly reply to Sanjay's post.     

 
 

 

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