More on the 'cladistics' of sequences

[Richard Jensen]

John Grehan wrote:

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Taxacom Discussion List [mailto:TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Richard Jensen
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> You're still ignoring what has been explained here before.  Characters,
> in
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> and of themselves, are not phenetic or cladistic.  It's the method of
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> analysis of the data matrix that determines whether the result may be
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> described as phenetic or cladistic.
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> Dick
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> Not ignoring, just disagreeing.
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> John

Disagreeing!  OK, in that case I'll ask you to explain, for all of us, the
difference between a phenetic character and a cladistic character.  Better
yet, here's a character that I have used in analyses of relationships among
species of oaks:

    0 = cupule covering 1/4 or less of the acorn
    1 = cupule covering more than 1/4 but less than 1/2 of the acorn
    2 = cupule covering 1/2 or more of the acorn

Now, please explain whether this character is phenetic or cladistic.

Dick

--
Richard J. Jensen              | tel: 574-284-4674
Department of Biology      | fax: 574-284-4716
Saint Mary's College         | e-mail: rjensen at saintmarys.edu
Notre Dame, IN 46556    | http://www.saintmarys.edu/~rjensen