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Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 11:58:00 -0600 (CST)
From: znc14@TTACS.TTU.EDU
To: Gerry Moore <gerrymoore40@hotmail.com>
Cc: PhyloCode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Re: Codes
On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, Gerry Moore wrote: > definitions, and the diagnoses don't even have to be correct." However under > the PhyloCode one can define taxon names under a phylogenetic hyopthesis > that is also later proven incorrect. [...] While the hypothesis may be incorrect, and the clades may have a substantially different composition (or, with qualifying clauses, may not exist at all), this has no effect on the "avalidity" of the named clade. One point of Phylognenetic Nomenclature (a point treated in the literature in several notable papers, including the orginal paper on the subject) is that phogenetic names identify clades, entities that exist objectively, regardless of analytical result (or objectively may not exist, see my earlier comments on qualifying clauses). This point is often lost on people, including some members of this list: a phylognetic defintion is NOT an hypothesis, it is (ideally) a recognition of an objectively real entity. In practice, some systematists choose to apply phylogenetic nomenclature in what is (to my mind) an irresponsible manner, appending names which traditionally apply to a particular group to a definition which fits that group ONLY in their preferred tree. This is *not* a weakness of phylogenetic nomenclature, it is a weakness in its application. This is (one reason) why we need a PhyloCode. So, I am not sure I agree with your analogy of traditional and phylogenetic nomenclatural schemes. Phlogenetic "taxa" are clades (or species), and are always real, although their content must be discovered, while traditional taxa are groupings, and we can never be sure they consitute a complete clade (some members may be unrecovered); they may not even have an exclusive relationship with regards to other known taxa. These are very different situations. Jonathan