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Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 15:10:09 -0600
From: "David M. Hillis" <dhillis@mail.utexas.edu>
To: PhyloCode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: species and clades
I haven't been able to keep up with all my e-mail today, so I apologize in advance if the following point has been covered by others. Regarding: >Draft item (Rule 10.2?) for PhyloCode, Article 10 > >10.2 Until rules for the formal recognition of species-entities are >admitted to the Code, names which, in standard practice outside this Code, >hold the rank of genus or subgenus may not be converted to clade names. > Such a rule is unnecessary...it may not be clear to everyone on the listserv that the plan is to include rules for naming species before the code is adopted. To do otherwise would indeed create massive problems. We just haven't settled on those species-naming rules yet. We've had extensive discussions about this point in the past, and many (most?) of us would not want to adopt any code that didn't include rules for both clades and species. We just haven't written the species rules yet. I do NOT think we want to avoid converting clades that were genera or subgenera...under the Zoology Rules, at least, any group name that is below a genus is considered a subgenus, even if it is called by another rank (section, division, whatever). [An interesting by-product of this rule is that subgenera within subgenera are possible under ICZN, so that the Linnean system is not inherently hierarchical (or rather, the hierarchy of ranks can be forcibly misleading)]. I think a lot of the new clades of interest would be below the rank of the existing genera, so if proposed as new names, they would be recognized as subgenera by the existing codes. I have a manuscript in press in which I had to address this issue for a bunch of new clades (technically subgenera under the ICZN rules) of salamanders, and I have another in the works on frogs. In both cases, I call the new clades new clades, but they will be subgenera under ICZN rules. 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