[Taxacom] Fundamental pupose of names (was Phylocode...)

[Stephen Thorpe]

>AND something about that organism<

the keyword is 'something' ... cladists seem to want the name to precisely and 
perfectly pinpoint the place of the taxon in their preferred phylogeny ...




________________________________
From: Dick Jensen <rjensen at saintmarys.edu>
To: David Campbell <pleuronaia at gmail.com>
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Mon, 18 April, 2011 11:22:04 AM
Subject: [Taxacom] Fundamental pupose of names (was Phylocode...)

As I understand what Linnaeus did (see David Campbells' comment below), the 
fundamental purpose of his binomials was to both tell us what organism was being 
discussed AND something about that organism.  After all, his binomials were 
shortened forms of his polynomials, which were descriptive statements about the 
taxon in question.  And, the names serve another purpose - they provide 
definitions of the taxa: knowing a species belongs to the genus Quercus allows 
one to know a great many things about that species, both character data and 
phylogeny.  


Dick J
----- Original Message -----
From: David Campbell <pleuronaia at gmail.com>
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:48:34 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Phylocode vs Linnean nomenclature, again.


The fundamental purpose of taxonomic names is to tell us what organism
someone is talking about, not to tell us its phylogeny.  Phylogenetic
information is great, but not if I can't tell what organisms it refers
to.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
The Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca NY 14850

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