[Taxacom] suppression in science

[Lynn Raw]

John,

I am not denying the usefulness of cladistic techniques, I have used them before and probably will again. While they can be used in alpha taxonomy to consider wider relationships, they are not absolutely necessary since cladistics is about finding shared derived characters to connect monophyletic taxa while alpha taxonomy in the sense of describing new species uses unique derived characters as separators. Sorry for going off-topic. I am certainly aware of the suppression of paper submissions by reviewers because of personal prejudices, fear of competition or sense of “ownership”.

Lynn


> On 3 Dec 2017, at 18:11, John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Seems to me that everything in science or systematics becomes whatever people want it to be. It is my impression, for example, that for many evolution people operates as a 'substitute' (really a re-presentation) of religion.
> 
> Cladistics operates in alpha taxonomy (species?) if you want it to.
> 
> Down with cladistics! Down with whatever! :)
> 
> John Grehan
> 
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> On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 11:36 AM, Lynn Raw <lynn at afriherp.org <mailto:lynn at afriherp.org>> wrote:
> I thought cladistics was a tool for systematics, not a religion. I am not sure where it necessarily comes into play with alpha taxonomy.