[Taxacom] Molecules vs Morphology

[Jason Mate]

> Perhaps, but congruence or incongruence does not provide any judgment
> other than two data sets agree or don't.
> 
> On might compare one's data (or results of the data analysis) with other
> insights, but that does not presuppose subordination of one's data at
> the outset.

Congruence
does not presupose subordination, on the contrary. It is a pat on the
shoulder which is all that we can hope for other than transitional
fossils.


> You mention that congruence in itself is uninformative, but in regards
> to what? 
> 
> In regards to anything
> 
> You also mention ''total congruence'' so I am guessing that it would
> have to fit unavailable data that may be found later? 
> 
> No, meaning parts of a phylogeny might match while others do not.

Each
lineage is independent from the rest so you wouldn´t expect matching in
this respect. What´s more although we may assume that a shared
evolutionary history between sister lineages will be reflected in their
subsequent evolution (evolutionary inertia), this is a transient
phenomenon that will be obliterated at different rates and on different
characters depending on the evolutionary pressures that each lineage is
evolving under.

Furthermore divergence of two lineages often is
not a clean-cut split but more like a reticulated pattern between
populations in which exchange of information is cut one thread at a
time. As such you would expect disagreement between individual
characters (homoplasy) with the "average" or congruence chosen as the
"best" possible explanation.


> The angle of the authors is not hinting at kow-towing, it is more a
> defensive position based on a question posed by somebody. Of course the
> whole incident might be apocryphal but it still reads as a defence of
> morphology vs genes.
> 
> You are right, they are not hinting, they are actually explicit about
> kow-towing as quoted in my email.

I will assume that your definition and mine of subservient behaviour is different!

Best

Jason
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