[Taxacom] Propaganda (was: Molecules vs. Morphology)

[Richard Zander]

The law of large numbers is the basis of statistics, and is not just a
theoretical or philosophical principle. It is an observation in physics.


On the other hand, 800 base pairs may not be enough, according to some
things I've read, to reveal the history of that particular gene
sequence, depending on numbers of changes for that sequence.

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Richard H. Zander 
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Missouri Botanical Garden
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richard.zander at mobot.org
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-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 5:10 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Propaganda (was: Molecules vs. Morphology)

 Unfortunately, working 'for' molecules and morphology is not so
straightforward. Of course morphological inheritance has a molecular
counterpart, but this does not automatically mean that current methods
of counting base similarities is necessarily the best way of capturing
this or any other phylogenetic signal, or better than morphological
evidence. The law of large numbers is invoked, but its just a
theoretical or philosophical principle, and one that was used in the
past by morphologists who tried to argue that the more similarities
included the better the result.