[Taxacom] morphology in molecular phylogeny

[Thomas G. Lammers]

Which illustrates well the oft-forgotten maxim, "A tool is only as strong 
as the workman who wields it."

At 11:20 AM 1/19/2007, Barry Roth wrote:
>I know of one situation where samples, all identified as the same species, 
>were submitted to molecular systematists, who proceeded to report 
>considerable diversity that "may well represent different species and even 
>a different genus."  They went on to declare the system a "morphostatic 
>radiation" (defined elsewhere as "considerable, rapid speciation with low 
>anatomical diversification" and "low levels of anatomical change").  But 
>the morphological "stasis" was not documented (a single character 
>mentioned as unreliable was one long known by taxonomists to have little 
>diagnostic value in the group in question).  I strongly suspected that the 
>samples included specimens that, had they been reviewed by competent 
>taxonomists, would have been recognized as different species based on 
>morphology.  I was later able to confirm this by examining a few of the 
>specimens that survived the analysis.  Fortunately, the "different genus" 
>was removed from the array that was later reported by
>  two of the original authors in an extended publication; but the 
> "morphostatic radiation" remains a figment of ignored morphological data.

Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-1002
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and 
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.

Webpages:
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/herbarium/herbarium.html
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Resort/7156/lammers.html
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
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