Cryptids and the Species Problem

Cryptozoologists like to discuss, and often argue, about what extinct or living species cryptids belong to. The arguments can get quite heated concerning Bigfoot. Is Bigfoot Homo erectus, or Gigantopithecus? Or perhaps even Australopithecus? Some researchers even consider Bigfoot part of the human species. Of course, all such arguments rely on twin assumptions: 1) we [...]

You Can’t Tell a Species by Its Cover

The theory of evolution involves numerous complicated and confounding elements—almost as many elements, I daresay, as DNA itself. Charles Darwin posited that natural selection drives the evolution of species, and this idea has become the cornerstone of evolutionary theory. In natural selection, traits that seem beneficial are preserved in a species while undesirable traits gradually [...]