Farewell to Species - reticulation

[Thomas Lammers]

At 01:35 PM 2/1/00 -0700, you wrote:

>I agree with just about everything you said Tom, but what have polytomies
>got to do with reticulation?

Nothing of course.  But both are considered sources of homoplasy, phenomena
that prevent a pretty pattern from emerging.  That was my point: that we
fixate so strongly on getting the cladogram to "come out right" (be
completely dichotomous) that we are willing to ignore what may be very real
biological phenomena expressed as, e.g.,  polytomies (adaptive radiation)
or reticulation (allopolyploidy, hybrid speciation).

Advocatus diaboli,


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