PhyloCode prefix/suffix?

[Thomas Lammers]

At 09:23 AM 10/26/00 -0500, Dick Jensen wrote:

>The addition of the exclamation is, as you suggested, a value-added
>character.  It makes it clear that the group in question is one that has
>the added status of having been recognized (by the latest information
>available) as a monophyletic group.

If indeed groups recognized via cladistic analysis are "superior" in some
fashion to groups recognized by other means, then it only seems logical for
the proponents of such a view to emphasize and highlight that opinion in
the name of the group.  I would think a symbol with great positive
connotations in our culture, such as an exclamation point, would be a
particularly attractive way to do so.  I can see where a backslash, which
is a pretty connotation-neutral symbol, would not have been viewed this
way.  In that regard, the "less than" sign (<) will probably never gain
favor, no matter how much it resembles a two-taxon statement.


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:      920-424-7085
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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