[Taxacom] New systematics book

[JF Mate]

Information content of classifications is inversely related to their ease
of use and stability. And since everybody´s threshold is different in this
inherently subjective matter, I doubt there is an optimum sweet spot that
will please the majority.

Jason



On 9 September 2013 16:39, Curtis Clark <lists at curtisclark.org> wrote:

> On 2013-09-09 7:29 AM, Richard Jensen wrote:
> > I agree with Ken.  The expression "Birds are descended from Reptiles" is
> > more informative and interesting than is "Birds are Reptiles."  First, it
> > clearly states an evolutionary hypothesis.  Second, it encourages the
> > reader to consider what lineage of reptiles differentiated into birds and
> > how this happened.
>
> The expression "birds are maniraptoran theropods" is more informative
> than either one (and more easily subject to falsification, however that
> might work in systematics).
>
> And no one (that I know of) says "birds are descended from amniotes" or
> "birds are descended from vertebrates", or even "humans are descended
> from mammals".
>
> --
> Curtis Clark        http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
> Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4140
> Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>
> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> methods:
>
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>
> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>