[Taxacom] Confused origins

[John Grehan]

It should be a short branch. Orangutans are pretty cagey about getting too far out on a limb. Not sorry for the bad pun.

John Grehan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pierre Deleporte [mailto:pierre.deleporte at univ-rennes1.fr]
> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 4:40 PM
> To: Richard Zander
> Cc: John Grehan; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Confused origins
> 
> 
> 
> This proposition is really exciting, but if this is the case, the "X"
> taxon should stand, like the Orang, on a long branch of some sort,
> which rather suggests investigating promising places like the forest
> canopy in Sequoia National Park
> 
> 
> > The perennial discussions of whether humans and chimps, or humans and
> > orangs are more closely related are not without merit. I've pointed out
> > in the past that molecular trees and morphological trees may be
> > decoupled, and both trees may be true at once.
> >
> > One might consider that the most parsimonious solution is for the
> > molecular and morphological trees to be congruent. How? Well if there
> > were a human-orang intermediate taxon with lots of molecular traits
> > matching the human-orang ones and few matching chimp-gorilla, it might
> > change the molecular cladogram from
> >
> > (((human, chimp) gorilla) orang) to ((((human, "X") orang) chimp)
> > gorilla).
> >
> > In fact, given parsimony as a goal, the lack of congruence of molecular
> > and morphological cladograms is actual evidence of the existence of such
> > a beast! For instance, "X" could be extinct, or even still around,
> > peering at us from beneath beetling brows in covert behind bushes in the
> > high Himalayas or deep woods in northwestern North America.
> >
> > I cannot claim this idea as my own, but was notified of this in a letter
> > to me yesterday from A. Yeti, General Delivery, Kathmandu.
> >
> > *****************************
> > Richard H. Zander
> > Voice: 314-577-0276
> > Missouri Botanical Garden
> > PO Box 299
> > St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
> > richard.zander at mobot.org
> > Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/
> > and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
> >
> > For FedEx and UPS use:
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> > 4344 Shaw Blvd.
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> > *****************************
> >
> >
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> 
> 
> 
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