the "p" word (paraphyletic)

[John Trueman]

While we are on paraphyly (and just to stir the pot): if lineage-splitting
commonly proceeds by the branching-off of one population (or part of a
population) from a multi-population species, are not 50% of taxa
necessarily paraphyletic from their origin? Any additional appearance of
monophyly in extant groups must have come about through the extinction of
all but one portion of the paraphyletic 'rump'. This relationship must
apply to kingdoms as much as to anything else.


John Trueman


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John Trueman
Faculties Research Fellow
Bioinformatics Group
Research School of Biological Sciences
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200,  AUSTRALIA


ph: +61 2 6249 4840
fax: +61 2 6279 8525
email: trueman at rsbs.anu.edu.au

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