[Taxacom] quote of the week

[Richard Jensen]

John,

Are you suggesting that molecular sequences do not constitute biological 
evidence? This seems a radical point of view.

And, why is an observation of the morphology of an ear more empirical 
than determining the sequence of a gene?

Cheers,

Dick J

Richard Jensen, Professor
Department of Biology
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-284-4674



John Grehan wrote:
> As you all know, the chimpanzee theory of human origin is all the rage
> because of their greater molecular similarity to humans than the other
> great apes, and that this theory of origin is contradicted by the
> biological evidence. For all the (usually blind) faith that is put in
> the molecular theory, here is a footnote published in Scientific
> American, March 2008 (p. 21).
>
>  
>
> "One thing everyone agrees on is that reading our history in our genes
> is fraught with pitfalls. Getting lots of data has become easy, but
> working out which sequences to use, whom to sample, and how to identify
> the genetic legacies of natural selection, migration and publication
> bottleneck is extremely touch. Even relatively simple analyses involve
> assumptions and educated guesswork and can take thousands of hours of
> computer time."
>
>  
>
> So you can chose a method fraught with pitfalls and educated guesswork,
> or  the biological evidence where the characters are empirical, there is
> no guesswork, and less in the way of computational assumptions
> (certainly no need to resort to a priori theoretical models of what the
> phylogeny should be in the first place).
>
>  
>
> John Grehan 
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Dr. John R. Grehan
>
> Director of Science and Collections
>
> Buffalo Museum of Science1020 Humboldt Parkway
>
> Buffalo, NY 14211-1193
>
> email: jgrehan at sciencebuff.org
>
> Phone: (716) 896-5200 ext 372
>
>  
>
> Panbiogeography
>
> http://www.sciencebuff.org/biogeography_and_evolutionary_biology.php
>
> Ghost moth research
>
> http://www.sciencebuff.org/systematics_and_evolution_of_hepialdiae.php
>
> Human evolution and the great apes
>
> http://www.sciencebuff.org/human_origin_and_the_great_apes.php
>
>  
>
>  
>
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