opinion of taxonomy (was peer review)

[Barry M. OConnor]

>At 02:01 PM 2/20/98 -0300, Thomas Schlemmermeyer wrote:
...the horror of people who are merely dealing with taxonomic branching
(i.e. cladists)...
>
At 8:57 AM 2/20/98, Curtis Clark wrote:
>
>Merely?

The Systematics Agenda 2000 working group concisely defined, under the
question, "What is Systematics?" three broad areas:
1.  Taxonomy - The science of discovering, describing, and classifying
species or groups of species...
2.  Phylogenetic Analysis - The discovery of the evolutionary relationships
among a group of species...
3.  Classification - The grouping of species - ultimately on the basis of
evolutionary relationships.

Frankly, none of this is horrible or "mere."  All are necessary to a full
understanding of biological diversity.

Barry M. OConnor                phone: (734) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (734) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA