Abstract
Minerals reveal the nature of the co-evolving geosphere and biosphere
through billions of years of Earth history. Mineral classification systems
have the potential to elucidate this rich evolutionary story; however, the
present mineral taxonomy, based as it is on idealized major element chemistry and crystal structure, lacks a temporal aspect, and thus cannot reflect
planetary evolution. A complementary evolutionary system of mineralogy
based on the quantitative recognition of “natural kind clustering” for a wide
range of condensed planetary materials with different paragenetic origins
has the potential to amplify, though not supersede, the present classification system.
Keywords:
Philosophy of mineralogy, classification, mineral evolution, mineral ecology, data-
driven discovery, cluster analysis, natural kinds