Crown Eukaryotes - Another myth [ Scanned for viruses ]

[Paul Kirk]

So Laura, we have 60-100 'potential' Kingdoms and for Ken the Plants and the Animals (whatever they might be called) are deserving of recognition as Kingdoms? Sounds IDeal to me but is is scientifically justified ... ;-)
 
I guess I should replace kingdom with clade for the time being.

________________________________

From: Taxacom Discussion List on behalf of Laura A. Katz
Sent: Sun 05/03/2006 02:25
To: TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU
Subject: [TAXACOM] Crown Eukaryotes - Another myth [ Scanned for viruses ]



There is no evidence that animals and fungi, or plants for that
matter, are in a 'crown'

The 'crown eukaryotes' myth emerged from the structure of early
molecular trees where long branch taxa 'fell' to the bottom.

In multigene and rate-corrected single gene analyses, there is no
compelling evidence for a crown.

Instead, there is a tremendous diversity of eukaryotic clades (some
60-200, depending on who you ask), of which plants, animals and fungi
are only three.




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Laura A. Katz, Associate Professor
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http://www.eutree.org
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