Fwd: PhyloCode names

[Philip Cantino]

Finn Rasmussen wrote:


>I think we really need some kind of rules for coining clade names, and such
>names have to be rankless, i.e. there cannot be hierarchical information
>built into the form of the name. But I also think that Tom Lammers has a
>good point in suggesting that clade names should have a form making them
>easily distinguishable from traditional "Linnean" names (which haven't got
>very much to do with Linnaeus). Note that names of cultivars cannot be
>latin-like words. The "L" and "P" recommended in art. 6 of the P-code may
>not be enough to avoid confusion, and they are difficult to handle in
>speech.
>
>Why not decide that clade names should be English plural forms of some
>descriptive word, like "Tricolpates" for the Eudicots - or a phrase based on
>a word in Sanskrit or another distinguished fossil language. Or we might
>agree on a set of suffixes, one of which should always be used in clade
>names under the PyloCode.
>

The problem with this approach is that every PhyloCode name would
therefore necessarily be a new name.  Users of the PhyloCode would
have to abandon thousands of well known names that are already
applied to clades (though not explicitly) under the current system,
and everyone who wants to use both phylogenetic and rank-based
nomenclature would have to learn two names for every clade.  In my
mind, this is totally unacceptable.

My own preferred approach would have been to require a standard
symbol at the beginning or end of PhyloCode names--for example a
slash at the beginning of the name, as used by David Baum and
coworkers.  Thus, /Lamiaceae would be a clade name governed by the
PhyloCode, whereas Lamiaceae would be a family name governed by the
ICBN.  In many cases, the name would refer to the same set of species
under both codes, but in some cases it would not.  For example, not
all circumscriptions of Lamiaceae under the current system are
monophyletic.  I have pushed for this sort of solution to the problem
that Tom and Finn point out, but the majority of the PhyloCode
advisory group disagreed.  Recommendation 6.1B was a compromise.

Phil


Philip D. Cantino
Professor and Chair
Department of Environmental and Plant Biology
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701-2979
U.S.A.

Phone: (740) 593-1128; 593-1126
Fax: (740) 593-1130
e-mail: cantino at ohio.edu