Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-9062114-20140323022721/@comment-24590102-20140324032119

80.216.220.71 wrote: Lore doesn't agree with you Harold http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Racial_Phylogeny.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Notes_on_Racial_Phylogeny

If elves can reproduce with Khajiits than so can Men. Not necessarily. Just because Khajiit and Elves are the same species (i.e. can produce fertile progeny) and Men and Elves are the same species (produced fertile progeny in the form of Bretons, Reachmen) does not necessarily mean that Men and Khajiit must be one species (i.e. are capable of producing fertile progeny) - otherwise all life would be described as one species.

Moreover, variation is not just by descent but also cladistic. It is eminently plausible for two species to share an ancestral race (or closesest descendents thereof) with which both can produce fertile progeny even though neither species are capable of the same with each-other.