You are wrong.
The Falmer are Snow Elves, they have changed physically given the 4-5000years that they have spent under ground eating mushrooms, just the same as if we sent Man into space for the same period of time the environmental differences was cause each successive generation to develop differently compared with Man left on earth.

They are the same species. The same race.

Well, to be fair, the Falmer has become something quite different from what they once were. If it turns out that some snow elves/falmer were not enslaved by the Dwemer and/or has been living above ground, i.e. maintaining their original appearance, they would obviously be a very different "creature" than the Falmer is today. Wether they'd technically still belong to the same race, or have evolved away from each other would certainly be up for debate.

I'm not even sure evolution is possible on Nirn.
I don't think there is precedent.

all the info on the DLC is right here, http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/bethblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Dawnguard.jpg just this, nothing else, so everybody saying that the snow prince and snow elves are going to be in the game are correct, as falmer are snow elves and there is already a book about the snow prince. this picture is ALL we know about the DLC in this picture we do not so any falmer or snow elves nor do we see a snow prince, there is also no spears or crossbows in this picture all that we Officially know about the upcoming DLC is that it is going to be called Dawnguard, we know nothing more and nothing less

Another point is this, even though the Falmer are the underground snow elves there is no certainty that all the snow elves went underground when the nedes took over Skyrim. Im guessing that some went into hiding on Solstheim in order to stay close to the Snow Prince. Hiding or some sort of stasis where they await his return (sounds far fetched enough to be true if you ask me) Anyone else given this a thought? Im finding it hard to belive that an entire civilization of snow elves would follow each other underground and into the service of the dwemer. In every civilization some groups would follow and some would split and do theyre own thing. And elves are longlived, who knows how long a lifespan they have....http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Stirk/The_Fate_of_the_Snow_Elves

I find this hard to believe because in Morrowind you go to Solstheim and your able to go to the tomb of the Snow Prince and take his spear, well unless they wanna go back on what they have already done in previous games because there was only the book the fall of the snow prince, back in that era of the game, the falmer werent known about and besides there are already inhabitants that live there you got the nords of the north on those gremlin guys along with some random werewolfs
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Only evolution would currently explain what happend to the Falmer though, precedent or no precedent.

I know that they were fed poisonous mushrooms and that over time the consumption of these mushrooms caused them to lose their eyesight, but when you compare the statue in Irkngthand to the real Falmer, it is apparent that they haven't simply gone blind. Just about every aspect of their physical appearance has vastly changed.
Their facial features, the shape of their ears, their hands and feet; they are completely unrecognisable. Their noses look like they were absorbed back into their skulls, the ears are now longer and slightly curved, they're no longer just blind but seem to have no eyes at all, their fingernails have become claws, their faces gaunt and masklike.

We know very little about them of course, but it doesn't look like they managed to preserve much, if any aspect at all, of their original culture either. The Falmer were described as proud people who rivaled the Altmer in their sophistication, and their leader inspired awe in the Nord who fought him. They used an elegant highly stylised script, wore fine clothing and, if the statue is anything to go by, considered these things vital aspects of their cultural identity. I personally see no traces of this former glory in the Falmer who live in Dwemer ruins and caves. I'd think differently, if they made some kind of visible effort to regain some of what was taken from them but they don't. The Dwemer have been gone for 4000 years and the Falmer are exactly where their masters left them - crawling about in the dirt. Worse yet, they seem to take pride in their degradation and cruelty. They attack everyone and everything, and in doing so degrade themselves even further. Maybe they simply aren't aware of how deeply they have fallen anymore, but I certainly doubt that the Falmer who once inhabited the surface world would have considered these Falmer to be of their kind. Combined with the above mentioned physical changes I think it is justified, if people consider the old Falmer and the Falmer today almost entirely different races.

Closer to the truth The Falmer are what the 'Snow Elves' of ancient law were twisted into becoming by the Dwemer. They are the same race. Just what became of them.

Of course who is to say what the 'Snow elves' of Ancient Lore looked like. Was 'Falmer' their true name? We don't know.

All we know is that the modern Snow Elf is a blind, almost Goblinoid creature, which lives in caves.

I was unaware anyone was getting this confused, it's pretty common sense of you pay attention.

This could be more a chemical mutation more then strict evolution though.
The loss of sight isn't evolution, its a side effect caused by a poison. A poison that is arguably passed on from mother to fetus while inutero?

Is there anything to suggest that if a Falmer were to carry a child to term without consuming the poison, that the child would not be born deformed?

The Falmer are an involution of the Snow Elves,but is the same race. Other and various are the "reasons" that have caused this regression if you read the lore and the in game books

As others have said, Falmer and Snow Elves are one and the same. Just the ones we see (or have seen so far) in Skyrim have devolved significantly from their former glory. This is indeed covered quite clearly on UESP and books in the game, I fail to see how anyone could get the wrong end of that stick?

Maybe not strict evolution but a combination?
All that was stated in the game, is that the mushrooms are the initial cause of the Falmer's blindness, and that the Dwemer made these mushrooms an essential part of their diet, to ensure the blindness of not only their current slaves but all future Falmer as well. So you would be right in saying that the poison must have affected the fetus inutero. This would apply, even if we assume for the sake of argument, that the effects of the mushrooms are irreversible, and that blindness persists, even if the poison is no longer consumed. A blind mother still wouldn't give birth to a blind child, unless she continued to eat the mushrooms during her pregnancy and in doing so poisoned her child.

I've followed the discussions on here for quite some time, and people have come up with all kinds of theories about the mushrooms, ranging from addiction, to clueless Falmer who don't know any better, but whether the Falmer still consume the poisonous fungi today is actually unclear. There are no alchemy ingredients that affect eyesight, but since skooma doesn't have any effect on the player character either, the lack of effect on us proves nothing.

What made me think that there was evolution involved, is that the Falmer don't seem to have eyes at all anymore. Just wrinkly red skin where their eyes should have been. They no longer needed eyes since they can't see anyway - if that makes sense. And as I pointed out, if the statue is an accurate representation of a Falmer, they changed in ways that can not really be explained with mere poisoning. They seem to have adapted. Longer ears, claws instead of fingernails...

Maybe the dlc will shed some light on this. I'd certainly like to know why the Dwemer poisoned them in the first place.

evolution does exist in TES how else would you explain why the beast races can wear boots in oblivion and skyrim and not be able to in morrowind???

If animals races wearing boots could be considered evolution i'm the pope. Just think at their poor legs being forced in those embarrassing shoes

There is actually a massive statue of one during a quest and he still has his eyes (little cheeky clue there).



As for there being possibly no evolution in Nirn, if such was the case then every Falmer child would be born with eyes and would not mutate until they started eating the shrooms.

IMO they are more related than the same race. I think of the Snow Elves as an extinct(?) race and that they evolved/devolved into the Falmer after they where driven underground.

'Snow elf' is the Imperial translation of the Altmerish term 'falmer'. The way people use it now, calling the modern kind 'falmer' and the ancient kind 'snow elf' seems strangely backwards to me in some way
Still, I'm not sure this naming convention is 'official', and suspect 'falmer' and 'snow elf' may be used more or less interchangeably in the games.

If you look at Nordic Racial Powers, and look at Falmer Racial Powers pre-Skyrim, the Racial Powers of Nords seem to be reduced versions of what the Falmer had. How did the Nords manage to live in Atmora when every other man based race was forced to migrate because of the Continent becoming a polar region?
Of course the DLC may blow my theory out of the water, but until then this is a valid argument.

You just described evolution in your first post.

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At some point even though they started from the same species/race at this point they may not be the same anymore if to great a change has takin place. So I respecfully disagree, I think a falmer would attack a snow elf of old just like it would any other. I know this is getting silly but ask your self could a falmer reproduce with a snow elf I dont think its possible no more then men can reproduce with an ape, lol.

as the OP said (The Snow Elves are the Falmer)
I say (The Falmer were the Snow Elves)

Just my take

People tend to get confused if things have more than one name.

Wood Elf = Bosmer, for example.

But yes, nice clarification. +1

Falmer=snow elf....it is like if i were a human male who weighed 100 pounds and then over the span of 2 years i gained 50 pounds does that make me no longer a human male?

There probably is no such thing as genetic evolution in the TES universe.
Note that only 6500 years have passed since the Dawn Era, far too short for any natural divergence.
Mythopoetic pressures and divine intervention are the catalyst of change.
Such as the Dunmer and Orsimer, who used to be Chimer and Aldmer until a god messed with them and their patron deity respectively.

That's not a very good comparison.

Weight gain does not cause you to lose any of the physical traits typical for a human being. When you gain weight, your face becomes rounder of course, but your actual facial features are unaffected. The shape of your eyes, your lips and nose, the shape of your ears stays the same, and if you lose those 50 pounds you'll look exactly as you did before.

The Falmer underwent changes that are much more profound. They underwent a change that can not simply be reversed, no matter how hard they try. Their noses are a good example. They have become slits, which means that the very bone that once made up the bridge of their nose is no longer there. It's irreversible, they can't regrow that bone. They no longer have eyes, this too is permanent, their fingernails have become claws and so on. So unless a deity intervenes, they will never look like they used to.

As for the question whether they are still the same Falmer or not...I like to think so, but on the other hand, a Neanderthal man resembled us a lot more than the Falmer resemble the original Falmer, yet the Neanderthal man is a subspecies.

Tangentially, Sai tried to help them at one point, but why didn't Mara try to save them? Isn't that supposed to be her job?