Cladistics and "Eclecticism"

[David Orlovich]

Well I'm wondering about this then:

> >                         ------B
> >                   ---- |
> >                         ------A
> >                             |
> >                              ---C


If species A is only recognizable because it lacks the autapomorphies of B
and C then it's branch length would be zero.  That indicates to me that we
would need to go back to the plants and find more characters, look in more
detail at the organisms themselves and do more analyses.  I wonder this
whole argument over paraphyletic species is really a red herring based on
the fact that the tree is a reconstruction of the phylogeny based on usually
homoplasic data so is often going to only represent 'part of the story'.

David Orlovich.

on 7/2/02 10:00 AM, Richard Jensen at rjensen at SAINTMARYS.EDU wrote:

> I can't let this pass without comment, despite Tom's request.


> My point is that I don't believe that species A must be renamed in order to
> acknowledge the fact that species C is derived from species A. Yes, what I
> have
> described is an extreme case of "punctuated equilibrium;"  but something like
> this could happen and be noted and documented by systematists.  It may be
> happening right now.  I argue that there is no need, under such circumstance,
> to
> rename species A - it has not changed in any way except that it is the
> progenitor of another species.
>
> Dick
>
> --
> Richard J. Jensen              TEL: 219-284-4674
> Department of Biology      FAX: 219-284-4716
> Saint Mary's College         E-mail: rjensen at saintmarys.edu
> Notre Dame, IN  46556     http://www.saintmarys.edu/~rjensen
>


Dr David Orlovich,
Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity Research Group,
Department of Botany,
The University of Otago
PO Box 56,
Dunedin, New Zealand.

Telephone: (03) 479 9060 (international +643 479 9060)
Mobile: 021 133 9773 (international +6421 133 9773)
Fax: (03) 479 7583 (international +643 479 7583)
WWW: http://www.otago.ac.nz/botany/ and http://telperion.otago.ac.nz/erg/
email: david.orlovich at botany.otago.ac.nz