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Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 10:40:39 +0200
From: Michel Laurin <laurin@ccr.jussieu.fr>
To: PhyloCode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Re: Fwd: Vermes
>On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Michel Laurin wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> >Personally, I don't mind using _Synapsida_ (and _Therapsida_) as clades = -- >> >I've done so for years. I'm just thinking of "selling" the system to a >> >wider audience, some of whom may find these conversions (and those of >> >_Reptilia_, _Osteichthyes_, etc.) hard to swallow, especially when other >> >names for the clades are already in existence (however obscure). >> >> Actually, I don't think that this will be a problem. Many >> vertebrate paleontologists (including myself) have been using >> Synapsida in this monophyletic sense for so long, that I think this is >> already considered the normal meaning of that name. > >Good point. Fine for those taxa, then, but what about groups still used >quite commonly (probably mroe commonly) in their traditional senses, like >_Osteichthyes_ and _Reptilia_? > >(_Amphibia_ is not quite so bad, IMHO, since it still refers to the same >group in terms of extant taxa, and most biologists work with extant taxa.) Actually, I know many paleontologists (again, including myself) that have= used Osteichthyes, Reptilia, and Amphibia as clades for many years. I= think that this is a general issue (I suspect that most taxa have been used= as clades by now), and that people will just have to get used to the idea= that the only taxa that are valid are clades (this has been a major tenet= of cladistics for fourty years, so this should not be controversial), so= there should be no special problems with Osteichthyes, Reptilia or= Amphibia. I think that most people understand that sometimes, progress= requires a change of habits. Anyway, that's my opinion. Sincerely, Michel ********************************** Michel Laurin Equipe 'Formations squelettiques' CNRS - UMR 8570 Case 7077 Universit=E9 Paris 7 - Denis Diderot 2, place Jussieu 75251 Paris cedex 05 France Tel. (33) 1 44 27 36 92 Fax. (33) 1 44 27 56 53 http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/laurin/Laurin_Home_page.html **********************************