[Taxacom] example of taxonomic expertise needed

[John Grehan]

This points to a broader problem for many molecular studies - the nature
and extent of sampling of the outgroup. In morphology the minimal outgroup
coverage should be the immediate sister group. Often the molecular sister
group is just sampled, sometimes with just one or perhaps a few
representatives out of many as if molecular characteristics are thereby
fully represented (many examples with human-great apes where outgroups are
represented by a few species of lesser apes and monkeys). It is my
intuition that the outgroup condition should apply to the entire outgroup
and where possible be confirmed as such. In reality for larger outgroups
knowledge of all species for a given feature may not be possible and so in
those circumstances no different from molecular outgroups in using limited
sampling.

Have there been any molecular studies that examine the consequences of
ingroup relationships when sampling just one of many species in a large
outgroup vs sampling at least a majority or all?

John Grehan

On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 2:58 PM, David Campbell <pleuronaia at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I just ran across a paper analyzing some snail mitochondrial genomes.
> Their outgroup is a fish.  They didn't even do a very good job of finding
> existing snail sequences to compare to their newly generated sequence.
>
> --
> Dr. David Campbell
> Associate Professor, Geology
> Department of Natural Sciences
> Box 7270
> Gardner-Webb University
> Boiling Springs NC 28017
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