Tara beat me to the Taz story

Well, to give credit where it's due, afarensis also covered it awhile back as did Grrl (both citing news stories), and Carl had an excellent post on the similar phenomenon in dogs, Stickler's sarcoma (canine transmissible venereal tumor [CTVT]), starting his post off with what I think is the most interesting part of all this: "Can a tumor become a new form of life?" Fascinating stuff, though too bad it hadn't emerged in rats or something instead of an endangered species...

On other threads, I maintained that the TDFT is a speciation event. In which case, we are witnessing the creation of a new species in real time. An event that the creos consistently claim doesn't happen. I can't see any holes in my logic and a few other posters agreed. Anyone see any holes here?

You could make a case that the TDFT is a speciation event. This tumor is behaving like any other pathogen, viral, protozoal, etc.. We aren't used to thinking of mammalian cells as pathogens but so what. In this case, once one makes this viewpoint shift with justification, speciation becomes defensible. Ditto the canine case.

repost from PT:

The other point I was trying to make:

Given that the TDFT behaves like any other pathogen. And has a unique genome, albeit one derived by rearrangements and mutations from its predecessor, the T. Devil, and falls under the definition of life, it could be considered a new species of organism.

raven: "Anyone see any holes here?"

Nope. In fact, even before Zimmer published his 8/9/07 post on DFTD and CTVT I wrote (in private correspondence) that this is a speciation event, a change in level of selection (somatic to individual), and phyletic change from vertebrate organization to pseudo-protist.

I mean Zimmer's 8/9/06 post.

Colugo--you also made the comment over at Sciencegrrl's blog back in February--see the link in Tara's comment above.

Thanks Sven.

The same thing must have happened in the origin of viruses and prions: replicating ultraselfish entities became transmissible, thus escaping the fate of the host's disposable soma.

The reverse phenomenon is a parasitic entity (ERVs, Wolbachia, mitochondria, lichen fungi) incorporating itself into the germline of an unrelated host.

On other threads, I maintained that the TDFT is a speciation event. In which case, we are witnessing the creation of a new species in real time. An event that the creos consistently claim doesn't happen. I can't see any holes in my logic and a few other posters agreed. Anyone see any holes here?

Under most species concepts I can't. Maybe under all. I don't know all 25-upwards of them...

Indeed, someone gave a genus and species name to the HeLa cells.

replicating ultraselfish entities became transmissible

Not to worry. It's part of God's Plan, after all.

Constantine (2005):

Angela: "I guess God has a plan for all of us."

Constantine: "God's a kid with an ant farm, lady. He's not planning anything."

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Anyone remember The Thing and The Blob's marshmallowy cousin, The Stuff?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuff

On other threads, I maintained that the TDFT is a speciation event. In which case, we are witnessing the creation of a new species in real time. An event that the creos consistently claim doesn't happen. I can't see any holes in my logic and a few other posters agreed. Anyone see any holes here?

Under most species concepts I can't. Maybe under all. I don't know all 25-upwards of them...

Indeed, someone gave a genus and species name to the HeLa cells.