cladism's greatest weakness

[PIETER WINTER]

The "different nature" of paraphyly at different levels is presented as some sort of obvious truth. I must have missed something. Can anyone elaborate on this? Surely they are both the results of the same process, separated only by time and extinction long after the event?



>>> Curtis Clark <jcclark at CSUPOMONA.EDU> 09/17 8:32 AM >>>
At 07:22 PM 9/16/99 -0700, Ken Kinman wrote:
>     Excellent point.  This speciation process is called "budding" and is
>quite common.   It is probably the true Achilles heel of cladism, even
>though I doubt most cladists realize this weakness.

Even my undergraduates understand that the paraphyly of the protists and
reptilia is of a different nature than the paraphyly of a species that
gives rise to peripheral isolates.