[Taxacom] Dark taxa: GenBank in a post-taxonomic world

[Curtis Clark]

On 2011-04-13 06:33, Richard Zander wrote:
> Ah, but are we sampling fragments of a book or fragments of an index to books? Are the sequences used for phylogenetic analysis more of a guide to the literature or of who borrowed the book than a sampling of the results of evolution?
>
> If sampling of results of evolution, then we must expect convergence from selectional pressure for some sequences. The only way to distinguish between neutral expressed traits (for a range of habitats) and traits under selective pressure is to analyze the sequences with respect to actual selection. If so, then this is not randomly generated data that tracks gene history but a combination of biased and unbiased data. Any analysis of this data alone is tongue-in-cheek.
>
> There is a psychological mechanism in literature called "als ob", or suspension of disbelief, substituting something known to be contrary to logic or observation with something delightful or satisfying.
Don't push the analogy too far. My point was that the curves might not 
represent a change in attitude, but rather the playing out of constant 
processes over a finite but not fully characterized set. It's an actual 
hypothesis: "The existing curves can be accounted for by constant 
processes."


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Curtis Clark
Cal Poly Pomona