This is awesome.

Interested in pursuing your evolution statement, I - (and I am RUBBISH at maths) - made an assumption for a moment that 6500 years was earth years and not Nirn years, whereupon according to my (probably wrong) calculations and assuming a ratio of 20:1, that would mean that still only 3,120,000 years had passed on Nirn which even allowing for the accelerated time there as compared to earth would still be too short for evolution.
(Please feel free to correct my numbers!)

For the specifics of units of time, it's anyone's guess. But recorded history is roughly 4400 years (and Dyviath Fyr is only a hundred or two years younger!), and there's the silliness that was the Merethic and Dawn Era that's not a very defined potion of Nirnian history.

And as I mentioned, and Merari, evolution isn't like here in RL. The dunmer became the dunmer, not because of volcanic ash, but because Azura cursed the chimer. The bosmer took in "mannish wives." The khajiit came from the same line as Bosmer, but had their formed bound to the moon and were made as cats by Azura. The orsimer were Aldmer who were more devoted to their hero god, Trinimac, but turned into their god's likeness when he fell from grace.

I think the only time there has been genetic evolution is with the bretons, but that was 1000s of years of mostly isolation of Aldmer and Nedics from High Rock.

Nah, thats ok.
If youre interested in catalysts of change in Tamriel there is http://www.imperial-library.info/content/changed-ones, which talks about how an Aldmer subsect became the Orcs.

You may also be interested to know that both the Khajiit and the Dunmer owe their current form to Azura.
She cursed the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Nerevar_at_Red_Mountainfor not obeying her and the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Words_of_Clan_Mother_Ahnissi were a wandering tribe of Ehlnofey that made a pact with Azura.

Sorry if i skipped through the thread, but just to OP. I believe that Falmer is the name given to devolved Snow Elves, not so much like Wood Elves being called Bosmer or Dark Elves Dunmer. But, then again the word "Mer" meaning the Elvish type races could mean you are right. Its kind of a swings and roundabouts thing that maybe the DLC will answer.

The one thing that stands out to me is the Y'ffre act the Bosmer participate in. This makes them into supernatural beings in desperate times, something they call the wild hunt. Problem is, they can not turn back to the normal Bosmer form and often become dangerous. Sometimes this is said to be where monsters all over Tamriel came from. Maybe just maybe the Snow elves had a similar ritual and attempted to use it against the Nords. But instead of it being offensive, as the Bosmer used against the Nords to kill their high king (this happened later I think?), maybe it backfired and they became beast like devolved creatures, and more territorial and subterrainian defensive creatures than the Bosmer Y'ffre creatures offensive nature.

Then again, all that doesnt answer whether or not Falmer refers to Snow elves or the devolved form they now exhibit.

@hellmouth & merari - thank you for being enlightening.
I've read the history but never really READ it, if you see what I mean - (partly because of RP and partly because of laziness on my part) - it's nice to have a proper perspective.

And yes I know that IRL and Nirn do not compare in many ways, it was a very simplistic exersize using a mass of egregious assumptions! Personally I prefer their history to ours as it goes, it just seems more... interesting and exotic...
...but then familiarity breeds contempt I guess!

Nope, nevermind, I made a silly on this post and edited it out, nice quoted post though.

Probably not.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Father_of_the_Niben describes that on his journeys he encountered cat-like creatures.

Topal sailed in the Merethic era before the great Aldmer exoduses which produced the Orismer, Chimer, Bosmer etc.
However, he already describes Khajiit.
It is therefore more logical to assume that the Khajiit were a wandering tribe of Ehlnofey, who likely already had subgradiated into mortal incarnations.

Its all inference mind, but it fits the timeline.

" The cat demons of four legs and two ran the river's Length, always keeping the boat in their Green-eyed sight, hissing, and spitting, and Roaring with rage."

No. The lore that I gave a link to is pretty specific that the Falmer is the Elvish word, and Snow Elf is the Nord translation of the Elvish.

You don't hear the Altmer calling themselves 'High Elves' or the Dunmer calling themselves 'Dark Elves', they simply call themselves 'Altmer' and 'Dunmer'. In the same way, the "Original" Snow Elves called themselves 'Falmer'. Just because there is a massive change to the race (in this case due to a highly poisonous, magical mushroom that the Dwemer forced the Falmer to eat once they betrayed them into slavery), doesn't mean that they're an entirely different species from the original. And it's very clear in the Lore that the Falmer changed in appearance due to what the Dwemer forced them to eat.

Also, the greatest modern reference that I can name that says that the Falmer and the Snow Elves are still the same species is a reference made about them in the Thieves Guild quest line.

You are charged with getting the old Guildmasters' Journal translated. The Mage you take it to in Winterhold says that the language it is written in is Falmer. The translation stone that Calcelmo keeps "safely" guarded is a "rosetta stone" for the Falmer language. Both dialogues/quest info reference that this info is thousands of years old. They reference them as Flamer and Snow Elves with the interchangeability of them being the same race/species of Mer. And this is in game info that coincides with the Lore.

Falmer = Snow Elves and Snow Elves = Falmer.

"Over the thousands of years that the falmer evolved, to much variation has occurred for them to be classed as the same species." -- If this is true then why can modern caucasoids, mongoloids and negroids interbreed with each other? They are tens of thousands of years apart and they produce fertile offspring.

All modern humans in the real world are in the genus species Homo sapiens sapiens. We are all one species all of our differences are literally skin deep. The falmer on the other hand are difficult classify without further information from the developers. This thread will probably have its question answered in that upcoming DLC.

Kraisedion, that article was extremely interesting, but I am not sure how it would apply to megafauna like people, or specifically the falmer. Again being it is a magical world, anything can happen.

you cant take away the fact that the falmer we see today in game are the remnants of the falmer that the nords and dwemer [censored] in the ass 6500 years ago. You can always add to, but you can never take away from.

Sorry, just dipped back into this thread again.
I think your example re: Hom Sap was too limiting, look at birds for example: crows and pigeons are both birds, with a common ancestor, but they are not the same species. Closer to home, Chimpanzees and us...

Wait - consider what you just wrote.

True - all humans can successfully interbreed, whether African, Caucasian or Asian. Yet they are considered 'races.' Within each 'race', there is profound variability, yet each 'race' has enough common characteristics to permit visual distinction, and certain medical differences upon closer examination.

Thus, it is fair to make a distinction between the Falmer we encounter in the game and their ancestors who were referred to by nords as 'snow elves.' Perhaps a snow elf from the past and a falmer from the 4th era could successfully interbreed - it doesn't change the fact that they are, indeed, individual races.

Still the same species yes, as much as Vampires are still technically human. They are still living, still sentient, but they have a blood lust. What I said previously, is that if the Falmer had changed at some point in history, this makes them no less Falmer, but explains the lack of comminucation and hostility shown toward any tresspasser. I honestly can't believe the Falmer simply appear savage, aggressive and not too advanced beyond tribal states, because they made a choice to be that and attack any tresspasser. If this were so the Bosmer would of never made trade with the Empire or Altmer to help them live better while still abiding to the green pact. Then again the Bosmer did have far better living conditions and less invasive races living nearby, maybe they didnt need to isolate the entire race as much.

I agree that the Falmer are more than likely Snow elves and not some totally new species. But I believe what remains is a mere husk compared to a once great ancient race. I think the DLC will involve returning the Falmer to former glory somehow. As thousands of years, not gaining any control of Dwemer ruins or its defenses points more to some great change rather than a gradual evolution into what they appear as. A DLC to reverse this, now that would be quite a story.

where is the argument here?

undergoing a serious and radical genetic alteration does not change the fact that before said change they were already referred to as falmer, you cannot deny this fact because it is obviously a word of elven origin ("mer" is different to "elf", which is what men would have called them), I highly doubt that an elven race that pre-dates the races of man went there entire pre-man existence without naming themselves, and I highly doubt that they would have used words that at the time didn't exist to name themselves and then only after the massive genetic change choose to give themselves a name in a more familiar language.

the words snow elf and falmer are synonymous with each other, sure the elves genetics have changed so much that they may as well be a different race, but there names haven't changed, there names weren't subjected to many many generations of underground devolution, there names where not affected by the magic shrooms, their name has absolutely nothing to do with the physical changes they have under-gone because they were called falmer before it happened,

Its not so much an argument for me than a theoretical discussion on how the Falmer are as they are now. And whether that is barely changed from their origins or a massive change. I think at least.

Also whether it was an evolved change or a massive event change.

You're whole argument became invalid when you said that Vampires are still technically Human and that they are still living.

It has been well established in this game and in Lore that Vampires are undead (hence a certain Restoration Perk working for your characters' advantage in Skyrim).

Falmer = Snow Elves & Snow Elves = Falmer. Always has meant the same people/creature, still means the same people/creature.

If humans develop wings in he next century or so are we no longer human?

The answer in short is no. Or not exactly. We aren't simply humans, we are the homo sapiens sapiens and a human with wings can't be a homo sapiens sapiens, simply because the species referred to as homo sapiens sapiens doesn't have wings. So if we did grow wings we'd have evolved and become something else, and accordingly would be given a different name.

We'd likely still refer to ourselves as humans of course, but to claim that we'd still be the same species is wrong.