Striking a balance, weighting and Cladistics

[Mark Garland]

Thomas DiBenedetto wrote:

[...]
Characters are important in phylogenetic systematics if
they are homologies. If they are not homologies, they are not important. If
a homology is a something "small" like a particular nucleotide or something
"big", like a feather, does not make any difference that I can see.
[...]

Okay, here's a silly question:  How "big" can a homology get?  You mentioned
feathers; how about limbs? Organisms?  Is a human homologous to a chimp?

As the size of the things being homologized does not matter, there should be
no problem in homologizing organisms. Right?

Mark A. Garland
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, Mail Station 2500
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400





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