Info req.: molecules/morphology

[Una Smith]

Thomas G. Lammers wrote:

>>Can anyone suggest recent papers that address in any detail the idea that
>>clades that emerge in phylogenetic analyses of molecular data require
>>morphological or other non-molecular synapomorphies before it is practical
>>to recognize them formally?  I am particularly interested in commentary or
>>theoretical papers on this topic, rather than primary research papers in
>>which the topic had to be dealt with, though anything would be helpful.

B. J. Tindall wrote:

>       [...] There are quite a few hidden problems in the question, which
>include whether molecular trees are reconstructed/estimated by similarity
>matrix, parsimony, or maximum likelihood methods [...]

I think Tom Lammers' question concerns the application of new phylogenies
based on molecular data, all else aside.  He is asking about new theory
concerning best practices when making a new phylogeny operational (i.e.,
when using it in a system of classification).

Judd et al. 1999 (Plant Systematics) mention this on p.42, including some
references to recent commentaries on this topic.


        Una Smith               una.smith at yale.edu

        Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
        Yale University
        New Haven, CT  06520-8106