[Taxacom] Snake garbage

[John Grehan]

"Evolution and dispersal of snakes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass
extinction" (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25136-y.pdf )

This paper carries on the time honored scientific tradition of just
ignoring shortcomings of a method and ploughing on as if the ground was not
already falling away beneath. In this case the representation or priors as
some kind of empirically real source of estimating fossil calibrated clade
ages as anything but a minimum ages, and the continued temptation of using
an automated biogeography program as 'evidence' despite its
inherent inability to distinguish between vicariance and dispersal where
either can generate the same biogeographic pattern. I have been attacked
for calling this stuff 'garbage' but I have not come up with a more
accurate term - yet.

John Grehan