A biological continuum

[Curtis Clark]

Date sent: 21-MAR-1995
George Garrity wrote:
 >species density in a readily comprehensible form.  What we are learning from
 >this approach is that the species of microorganisms we normally refer to are
 >merely points along a biological continuum.  I rather suspect that higher
 >organisms will behave in an analogous manner, provided that a sufficiently
 >large sampling is done with enough characteristics.  Rather than focus on

There biological reasons why multicellular sexually-reproducing eukaryotes
would not be expected to form a continuum.  Perhaps with enough characters
we could force them into a continuum (certainly it has been tried in the
past), but this could well obscure important patterns.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Curtis Clark                                       Voice: (909) 869-4062
Biological Sciences Department                     FAX:   (909) 869-4396
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Pomona CA 91768-4032                               jcclark at csupomona.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------