[Taxacom] Molecules vs Morphology

[Jason Mate]

Apologies (for those who still care at this point) for my late reply. Firstly I was out and secondly I lost my reply through the power of hotmail. So I will just focus on a couple of points.


> > Furthermore divergence of two lineages often is
> > not a clean-cut split....expect disagreement between individual
> > characters (homoplasy) with the "average" or congruence chosen as the
> > "best" possible explanation.
> 
> No problem with this possibility

> > Each
> > lineage is independent from the rest so you wouldn´t expect matching in
> > this respect. 
> 
>
Perhaps, but the point was that when congruence between molecular and
morphological results it is not always congruent throughout. 

[order of Q&A inverted for convenience]

I am somewhat confused by this. If evolution does not act on every aspect of the organism equally all the time and lineages are independent why would you expect congruence throughout? You can  have local incongruence between any two particular datasets simply out of chance or because the gene-tree of one molecular dataset is different from the other due to the speciation process. It is the average of many datasets that you want as your best-available-hypothesis.

> Maybe - but however one defines it, the authors clearly identify molecular, not morphological, data as having the ability to pinpoint characters that reliably capture phylogenetic relationships:
> 
> "Increasing availability of molecular data can help develop new approaches (propaganda statement] by pinpointing characters that reliability capture phylogenetic relationships versus those consistently subject to homoplasy." 


Best, Jason
Translation, congruence helps identify the grain from the chaff. How is this propaganda? Would the statement have been more acceptable if it read ''by pinpointing POSSIBLE candidates?

_________________________________________________________________
Show them the way! Add maps and directions to your party invites. 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/products/events.aspx