Farewell to Species - reticulation

[Thomas Lammers]

At 08:52 AM 2/1/00 -1000, you wrote:

>I can understand a species giving rise to one other species through
>genetic mutations, natural selection, etc. (with the first species
>remaining extant), but not two (2) species! That just doesn't jive with
>genetics does it?

No, nor with much of population biology, cytogenetics, etc.  Cladistics
will REALLY come into its own when it becomes fully concordant with what
poulation biology, cytogenetics, etc. tells us about speciation and
microevolutionary processes.  As it now stands, the patterns it reveals are
a poor reflection of the underlying processes.  Whoever can meld cladistics
with process oriented speciation theory will achieve a synthesis comparable
to the NeoDarwinian Synthesis.

Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:                     lammers at uwosh.edu
phone (office):         920-424-7085
phone (herbarium):  920-424-1002
fax:                         920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
                                                 -- Anonymous