rankless nomenclature

[Walter Boeger]

Dear all,

I am especially interested in the discussion on "rankless nomenclature".
However (I may have missed something), nobody has yet mentioned the attempts
(E. Wiley, for example) to express phylogeny in a classification even if the
Linnean hierarchy is used.  The Linnean System, obviously,  has been used
for a long time and any drastic change (as a completely brand new system,
replacing the old one) may be highly deleterious.  I especially appreciate
the comments of Richard Pyle's last message (as we say in Brasil, it had its
"feet on the ground").  Well, I guess my question is, can we "adapt" the
Linnean system to be phylogenetically informative (as Wiley's "Annoted
Linnean Classification")?  If not, what is wrong with the previous attempts
to do so?  Why do we have to redo it all over again with new codes?

Cheers

Walt
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Walter A. Boeger, Ph.D.
Departamento de Zoologia, UFPR
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