[Taxacom] "Protista"

[Richard Pyle]

Cladistics isn't the bad guy.  Strict representation of holophyletic clades
via Linnean nomenclature is the bad guy.

And on that note, I leave in a few hours for a very remote part of Papua New
Guinea, with no electricity (let alone internet), so although I won't be
able to participate in any discussion on this contentious (to some) comment,
I promise that I will contemplate it from time to time.

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
  and Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology
Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html



> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Stephen Thorpe
> Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 4:50 PM
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: [Taxacom] "Protista"
> 
> some of the replies to my last email lead me to make the 
> following comment:
> 
> the classification of life into "kingdoms" (or "regna") 
> doesn't really work. For a start, there are the "problematic" 
> viruses - in or out of the biotic realm??? But, just to talk 
> about eucaryotes, it is completely obvious that "Protista" 
> are paraphyletic with respect to Animalia (=Metazoa), 
> Plantae, and Fungi. This leads to a dilemma:  
> either (1) animals and plants are no longer to be considered 
> kingdoms of life (which takes us disturbingly far away from 
> the original meaning of "kingdom"), or (2) we must elevate a 
> plethora of obscure "protist" groups to the level of kingdom, 
> and run the risk of our beloved animals and plants just being 
> sub-sub-sub-...clades of some newly recognised kingdom!
> 
> Someone please go back in time an kill Hennig, before he 
> invented cladistics!!! [just kidding!]
> 
> S
> 
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