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Taxonomic history has been made this week, at least according In the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Scientists have described a new species of clouded leopard from the tropical forests of Indonesia with spots (or "clouds", as they are poetically known; smaller than those of other clouded leopards, with fur a little darker and with a double as opposed to a "partial double" stripe down its back.
However, no previously unknown beast has suddenly leapt out from the forest. Instead, some scientists have proposed a change in the official taxonomic accounting system of clouded leopards. Where there were four subspecies there will likely now be two species. A genetic analysis and a closer inspection of museum specimens' coals published in Current Biology has found no relevant difference between three subspecies described 50 years ago from continental Asia and from the Hainan and Taiwan islands. The 5.000-11,000 clouded leopards on Borneo, the 3,000 -7,000 on Sumatra, and the remaining few on the nearby Batu islands can now, the authors say, claim a more elevated distinction as a species.
What this actually means is fuzzy and whether it is scientifically important is questionable. In any case, biologists do not agree what species and subspecies are. Creatures are given Latin first and second names (corresponding to a genus and species) according to the convention of Carl von Linne, who was born 300 years ago this May. But Linneaus, as he is more commonly known, thought of species as perfectly discrete units created by God. Darwinism has them as mutable things, generated gradually over time by natural selection. So, delineating when enough variation has evolved to justify a new category is largely a matter of taste.