new, probably brief subject

[Doug Yanega]

Stuart wrote (and, incidentally, Stuart, do you think you could toggle your
HTML function to "off"? Thanks):

>Is this assertion generally agreed upon  by those who advocate the
>Phylogenetic Species Concept?
>
>As we all know from a host of celebrated crimes, it is not only possible to
>distinguish subspecific variability, but also variability among virtually all
>individuals as well.  Are all individuals, except perhaps identical twins, to
>be regarded as different species simply because they are genetically
>distinguishable?

It was stated clearly in the seminal paper on the PSC that if there is so
much as ONE character shared by all members of population X that is not
possessed by any members of population Y, then X and Y are separate
terminal taxa (species). Obviously, that one defining character can be a
single base pair. I don't know of any species yet defined on that small a
foundation, but how the PSC interprets such a case is quite unambiguous,
since base pairs *are* characters.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82