More on the 'cladistics' of sequences

[pierre deleporte]

A 10:09 14/06/2004 +0100, David Williams wrote(two times):
>"all numerical methods
>are all inherently phenetic (because of the matrix and thus not
>phylogenetic) "

As this thread seemed to have enlighted, particularly with Tindall's nice 
post about calssic definitions, there is no "phenetic character".
I wonder how one can have a "phenetic data matrix".

>Let's try and move on.

We very certainly won't be able to move on (together) if we have such deep 
disagreement about what the words we use mean.
My definition of "phenetic" is Tindall's one : it qualifies a way of 
treating the data, i.e. grouping on the basis of overall similarity between 
taxa. Thus, an analysis cannot be phenetic "because of the data matrix".

Definitions matter for real debate.

Pierre


Pierre Deleporte
CNRS UMR 6552 - Station Biologique de Paimpont
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