Message 2001-02-0012: Re: apomorphy-based names

Tue, 06 Feb 2001 09:53:17 -0600

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Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 09:53:17 -0600
From: "David M. Hillis" <dhillis@mail.utexas.edu>
To: PhyloCode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Re: apomorphy-based names

My apologies to Jonathan Wagner for misinterpreting his proposed 
recommendations as support in favor of apomorphy-based names. I agree 
with David Baum's arguments against such definitions (his arguments 
were better formulated than mine). Jonathan asked (below) for me to 
respond to his point d:


>
>        d) And, please note: the third of my recommendations has nothing to do
>                with apomorphy based defintions. I would be interested to hear
>                what Dr. Hillis thinks of this one.


The relevant recommendation is:

Recommendation 11.8E: For logical consistency, in a stem- or node-based
definition of a clade named for an apomorphy, internal specifiers should be
chosen that unambiguously exhibit the nominal apomorphy. External specifiers
should be chosen that unambiguously lack the apomorphy.


I think this is a reasonable recommendation, although I'm not 
completely convinced that any specifier necessarily ever 
unambiguously exhibits (or lacks?) a particular apomorphy.

David Hillis

David M. Hillis
Director, School of Biological Sciences
Director's office: 512-232-3690 (FAX: 512-232-3699)
Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor
Section of Integrative Biology
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
Research Office: 512-471-5792
Lab: 512-471-5661
FAX: 512-471-3878
E-mail: dhillis@mail.utexas.edu

  

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