[Taxacom] natural paraphyly (was: stem eudicots of NCBI)

[Jim Croft]

I am quite prepared to listen to arguments for and against the merits
or otherwise of paraphyly, but the statement below is totally
subjective and has all the scientific rigour of a cooking competition
judgement.

Surely taxonomy and systematics can do better than this in its claim to science?

What next?  Rejection of excessive evolution?  Compromise with special
creation?  Just the right amount of quantum physics?  Popular vote on
the acceptable force of gravity or limiting pi to three decimal
places?  Declaring a tomato a vegetable? (oh, people, probably closet
paraphylists, already do that!)

Head... meet desk... repeat...

jim

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Kenneth Kinman <kennethkinman at webtv.net> wrote:
> Instead of totally rejecting paraphyletic taxa, he should have
> taken a middle course that rejected ONLY excessive paraphyly.

-- 
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~ http://about.me/jrc
'A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point
of doubtful sanity.'
 - Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)

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