[Taxacom] the cladists are revolting!

[Don.Colless at csiro.au]

I have been using the Linnean system for 67 years, and haven't noticed any substantial or severe problems. Please, Kirk, enlighten me. Of course, it could be that I have only been doing taxonomy, not systematics.

Donald H. Colless
CSIRO Div of Entomology
GPO Box 1700
Canberra 2601
don.colless at csiro.au
tuz li munz est miens envirun

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of J. Kirk Fitzhugh [kfitzhugh at nhm.org]
Sent: 06 May 2010 07:40
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] the cladists are revolting!

There are advocates for the Linnean system just as there are for the
PhyloCode. Both have substantial and severe problems as vehicles for
biological systematics (cf. Fitzhugh 2008, Evolutionary Biology 35:
52-82). I see no reason to worry about one more than the other.



On 5/5/2010 2:27 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> thanks John - though not sure I was representing or misrepresenting anything at all, but just trying to give the post a "smart ass" title ...
>
> cladists who don't attempt to reinvent taxonomy/nomenclature are of course less than revolting, but a lack of necessity doesn't imply that something won't happen or be lobbied for. After all, biological classification doesn't necessarily have any relation whatever to phylogeny, but could just be an information retrieval system. Cladists could study phylogeny independently of classification/taxonomy. But they don't ...
>
> The danger is that people with the hardcore cladist ideology described in the article will increasingly gain positions of power (in universities, and/or as journal editors) where they can reject the work of others for not following the chosen doctrine, and/or that funders will favour those who follow the doctrine ...
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: John Grehan<jgrehan at sciencebuff.org>
> To: Stephen Thorpe<stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Sent: Thu, 6 May, 2010 8:43:47 AM
> Subject: RE: [Taxacom] the cladists are revolting!
>
>
> What is more revolting is the way Stephen thorpe is misrepresenting the phylocode as a necessarily cladist position when it is not.
>
> John Grehan
>
> ________________________________
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu on behalf of Stephen Thorpe
> Sent: Wed 5/5/2010 4:40 PM
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: [Taxacom] the cladists are revolting!
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6369-linnean-naming-system-faces-challengers.html
> well, they were revolting in 2004, and I bet they haven't improved ...
>
>
>
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