[Taxacom] Molecules vs Morphology

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi John,
       I agree with Jason in that I don't see how you can justify
calling it a propaganda statement.  The amount of molecular data is
increasing FAR, FAR faster than any further additions to morphological
data.  Therefore, molecular data is most likely to shed light on which
morphological data is most reliable, not vice versa.     
      Not that molecular data is infallible, but the odds are that some
percentage of that "quantity" will contain important information of high
"quality" that will support some morphological data and cast doubt on
other morphological data.   Unfortunately, I believe your bias against
molecular data could hinder you from balancing one against the other in
an even-handed manner. 
      I truly doubt that you have many more putative morphological
characters to discover supporting an orangutan-Homo clade, but I suspect
whole genomes will provide a wealth of new information that could even
more completely negate that grouping.  That is why I am so looking
forward to a whole genome analysis.  You, on the other hand, seem to
have discounted it even before it has appeared, simply because previous
molecular analyses have been relatively limited in their scope.  The
biggest surprise would of course, be a clear gorilla-chimp clade, but
even that would not mean that orangutans and Hominidae exclusively clade
together.  You could still have orangutans splitting off first, and then
Hominidae splitting off at the base of an African great ape clade (with
gorillas and chimps then exclusively clading together).  That would make
the similarities between orangutans and Homo shared plesiomorphies (not
synapomorphies).  Time will tell.
               ----------Ken Kinman
*********************************************
John Grehan's accusation of propaganda statement:     
        "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." 
John Grehan