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Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 08:02:34 -0400
From: Philip Cantino <cantino@ohiou.edu>
To: phylocode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Fwd: a comment on ancestor
Igor wrote: > >It occurs to me that all agree that inclusion of a new object into >previously established classification would request re-running of >cladistic analysis, otherwise it is impossible to decide to which >particular taxon, as it is defined in the Phylocode, that object >belongs. In theory, perhaps this is correct, but in practice it would not be. Many newly discovered organisms will be so similar morphologically to others that had been included in an earlier cladistic analysis, that one could confidently assign them to a clade. Furthermore, if authors of phylogenetic definitions follow Rec. 9D (which recommends including with the definition a list of member species or subclades and a description or diagnosis), future workers will have an easier time deciding which clades a newly discovered species is a member of. The list of member taxa and the diagnosis are not part of the definition but make use of the author's expertise on the group to help future workers determine whether particular organisms that weren't included in the original analysis are members of the clade. >To me, it means that Phylocode pretends to regulate not only naming >but also recognizing taxa: it is explicetly stated in the preamble >and implicetly follows from presumed allocation procedure. Thus >Phylocode becomes ideological instrument to supress all who disagree >with cladistic principles. The PhyloCode is designed to name clades. It is therefore unlikely to be adopted by anyone who does not agree with cladistic principles. Its rules could be used to give explicit definitions to the names of paraphyletic or even polyphyletic groups, but I think it is unlikely anyone would choose to use it this way. Phil -- Philip D. Cantino Professor and Associate Chair Department of Environmental and Plant Biology Ohio University Athens, OH 45701-2979 U.S.A. Phone: (740) 593-1128; 593-1126 Fax: (740) 593-1130 e-mail: cantino@ohio.edu