[Taxacom] Tuataras are REAL (the relativity of reality)

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
      These endless arguments about whether species are real (or not) seem 
largely to be semantic exercises which largely rest upon on which particular 
species one is talking about.  The fuzzier they are, the more likely they 
are to be branded a class of objects rather than a real entity.

      The tuatara is an excellent example.  Admittedly, we could probably 
argue endlessly about whether there are actually one or two species of 
extant tuataras.  HOWEVER, tuataras are so distinctive that I cannot see how 
anyone can argue against the reality that they constitute a REAL clade of 
organisms which share descent from a common ancestral population of tuataras 
(whether it is one or two distinct species just distracts from the reality 
of the clade).  Such a clade seems to me to be BOTH a class AND an 
individual.  It's like having your cake and eating it too, but some seem 
intent on denying that we can have our cake and eat it too, even in such 
clear-cut cases.

      Why can't it be both, rather than only one or the other?  It is only 
in a minority of cases that we can do this, so why not celebrate them rather 
than insist that it has to ALWAYS be only one or the other just because many 
cases are not so clear-cut?  In a Universe full of continuua, it seems such 
a waste of time arguing over a term like "reality", when it is such a 
relative term and dependent on a given context and perspective.
    ----Ken Kinman

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