Message 2005-12-0057: Re: PhyloCode Taxonomic Classifications

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 21:50:21 +0000

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Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 21:50:21 +0000
From: [unknown]
To: phylocode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Re: PhyloCode Taxonomic Classifications

So talk of seeing how to specify species using PhyloCode are not stri=
ctly a part of PhyloCode? It is like translating between two language=
s? In any event with all the various definitions of species, for Phyl=
oCode would the following do? Species:If sexually produced they are g=
roups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations bu=
t if asexually produced they pass down their own forms with both type=
 of groups members diverging from one another towards separate specie=
s if not prevented from doing so.
Yisrael Asper
yisraelasper@comcast.net
Pittsburgh PA


> Clades can contain smaller clades, so one clade can consist of seve=
ral=20
> different smaller clades.
>=20
> Two arguably important semantic issues:
>=20
> - Phylogenetic nomenclature is about nomenclature, not about=20
> classification. We don't classify at all anymore. We try to find th=
e Tree=20
> of Life (phylogenetics), and then we tie labels to defined places o=
n it=20
> (nomenclature). We don't hack the tree apart so we could fit its pa=
rts=20
> into prefabricated boxes (that would be classification) -- we simpl=
y don't=20
> need that. Nothing stops us from printing the tree with the names o=
n it.
>=20
> - The term "taxonomy" is currently in use for several different thi=
ngs (as=20
> well as for all of them at once). Originally, however, it was inven=
ted for=20
> "the theory of classifications" (Arthur Pyramus de Candolle, 1812).=
 Under=20
> this definition, phylogenetic nomenclature is the end of taxonomy b=
ecause=20
> it is the end of classification -- just like phylogenetics, confusi=
ngly=20
> called "phylogenetic systematics" by its (confused) inventor, actua=
lly was=20
> the end of systematics*.
>=20
> * A similarly confused term that seems to most commonly mean "how t=
o enter=20
> species into an existing classification".

  

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