Talk:Holstaurus/@comment-98.118.39.187-20140103205448/@comment-81.241.159.179-20140413112634

While I know it's not something that shouldn't be taken as an official source, here's what wikipedia has to say: "A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more (including any that are extinct), never just one." [sic]

Since we only have a Holstaurus and a Minotaurus, we cannot scientifically classify either one of them as a subspecies of the other. All we can say is they are both different subspecies who diverged from a different parent species which seems to be not around anymore.

So, taking your example, if the wolf were to become extinct, would one of it's many subspecies (say, dogs)  suddenly be elevated to species level, and all the other kinds become subspecies to that one (the dog)?

But I'm not a biologist, so I'm not 100% sure about any of this. If you, however, are absolutely certain about what you're talking about, I'll admit I'm wrong.