Farewell to species (but not yet!)

[Thomas Lammers]

At 07:53 PM 2/4/00 -0800, Curtis Clark wrote:

>Paraphyletic groups are fine, until someone assume they provide
>information about kinship.

They do.  All their members are descended from a common ancestor.   That's
kinship.  You've just left some fellow descendent(s) out of the group.   So
you haven't got ALL the facts on kinship expressed.  Not good.  But it
seems a small sin compared to polyphyly, which indeed provides no
information about kinship.


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