A primer on Classification for all those who don't get it:

Quite often in a thread about evolution this sort of statement comes up:

"A person will always a person, a rat will always be a rat, bacteria will always be bacteria, a monkey will always be a monkey etc etc"

And my reply is typically to facepalm and try to explain how those are incredibly different changes on incredibly different levels. Now, quickly enough, I can just provide a simple example. Homo sapiens sapiens.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: H. sapiens
Subspecies: H. s. sapiens

That's modern humans. Now, let's break it down:

Kingdom: Animalia
We're animals
Phylum: Chordata
We are vertebrates
Class: Mamalia
We're mammals
Order: Primates
We're primates
Family: Hominidae
We're apes
Genus: Homo
We're hominids

Of course, this is all a lot more fun when you have it as a rap featuring Betty White.



So, before you make a statement about change, check what level you're talking about. Are you asking for change at the Genus level? Species? Family? Phylum?

And now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

That brings back memories. My room mate and I took turns with flash cards we made running through that in premed. Having to learn all of that info on plants and animals just in case it was on a test. Looking through a microscope, macro-scope or a dissection and listing what was displayed, the scientific name, common name and fleshing out the tree.