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Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 07:56:26 -0400
From: [unknown]
To: phylocode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Fwd: Re: use of vernacular names
Having read David's and Michel's comments, I will concede that my= =20 suggestion about how "tetrapod" might be used was probably=20 incorrect--but only because it is not a true vernacular name, as=20 pointed out by David: >I don't know how else we could get people to apply "tetrapod" to any= thing >other than Tetrapoda. "Tetrapod" is in reality not vernacular at all= . Because "tetrapod" is not really a vernacular name but just an=20 anglification of a scientific name, it does make sense that its usage= =20 match that of the scientific name. However, I still hold that true= =20 vernacular names will be used broadly for a range of nested clades= =20 and that this is not a bad thing. David provided some examples: >We'll >see if "mice" will be applied to Myodonta, Muroidea, Muridae, Murina= e or >*Mus*, we'll see if "birds" will be applied to Aves, Avialae, Pygost= ylia, >Avipinna, Maniraptora or whatever The name that led me into this line of thinking was "seed plants".= =20 In Paris, Michael Donoghue and I defined Spermatophyta as applying to= =20 the crown clade of seed plants, but it is often used for the total= =20 clade. As I anticipate the likely negative reaction of some of my= =20 colleagues to our proposal, my hope is that they will not object so= =20 strongly if Pan-Spermatophytes such as the Paleozoic seed ferns can= =20 still be referred to as "seed plants". If we want to introduce=20 greater precision into their use of the vernacular name, we can use= =20 the terms crown seed plants and stem seed plants, but both are seed= =20 plants. Phil --=20 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