Taxacom: On describing new taxa without using phylogenetics: some suggestions

Thu Oct 9 09:19:19 CDT 2025

Oh, my, I just got into this thread. The present author states:
"Under the pressure of an overwhelming number of problematic new taxa, we call for taxonomists to incorporate phylogenetic methods and reasoning into their taxonomic work. I understand that many may disagree, but please allow me to explain.:

I have pointed out in several papers that cladistics-oriented phylogenetics is based on determining shared ancestry. Given that about half of all extant species are immediate progenitors of one or more other species, and given that cladistic methods, molecular or morphological, ignore this fact, the present phylogenetic methods produce very low resolution dendrograms. This leads to massive lumping of perfectly acceptable classical taxa into bloated clades.

Luckily, evolution is so powerful that the overall patterns are somewhat preserved in cladistics. This is no excuse for hammering away at taxonomic names with the equivalent of 1970's cluster analysis.

What I call high-resolution phylogenetics uses descent with modification, and places inferred species at dendrogram nodes. Check my recent material on ResearchGate or Academia.edu for examples. The only caveat is that you need to learn how to do classical taxonomy using morphological traits, something perhaps overwhelming to many cladists.

There is yet hope for taxonomy.

Richard H. Zander - Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Blvd. - St. Louis, MO 63110 U.S.A.
________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Kuoi Zhang via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 6, 2025 8:52 PM
To: Taxacom (taxacom at lists.ku.edu) <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Subject: Taxacom: On describing new taxa without using phylogenetics: some suggestions

Zhang G, Feng Q. 2025. Why we should not describe new taxa without using phylogenetics. Comment on Chen et al. (2025). Journal of Natural History 59(37–40): 2355–2359.
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1080%2F00222933.2025.2564347&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0ee3d252f5f448d4716e08de073ee491%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638956163910806950%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=H5clgpPXN5hEpICJJDAtjsi8NjVNcRVBSBy%2FzEjy6Nw%3D&reserved=0<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1080%2F00222933.2025.2564347&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0ee3d252f5f448d4716e08de073ee491%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638956163910825524%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qYPmBXN7ZoMhRrI4wTutEGhSfFRDkzxIpL10OAvkoCc%3D&reserved=0>

pdf available at https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F396239492_Why_we_should_not_describe_new_taxa_without_using_phylogenetics_Comment_on_Chen_et_al_2025&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0ee3d252f5f448d4716e08de073ee491%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638956163910839606%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EwnUJjlO15ABAMNEvfCBBdGK9QsLozaJtjgitUu07GE%3D&reserved=0<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F396239492_Why_we_should_not_describe_new_taxa_without_using_phylogenetics_Comment_on_Chen_et_al_2025%3F_sg%255B0%255D%3DhqDEV92UeyWCOKjJ17ed1jbtmejHJ9MvHWGQaWxxhz91RNCiYocNZhGRj2BRWUdscZ9UF6XUnkfkZoKRIVT8RXi0FUkNPb4Rchgejiww.9eeTE4s8-qcLQo1Mb6y-bvvUmMI_J0sUIayNKpVofl3fGnDJw9mz4G9HP665eLzB2opS-IMV26GiwEDPg5TCgA%26_tp%3DeyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InByb2ZpbGUiLCJwYWdlIjoicHJvZmlsZSIsInBvc2l0aW9uIjoicGFnZUNvbnRlbnQifX0&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0ee3d252f5f448d4716e08de073ee491%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638956163910851120%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oK3G8NXPAsCjRbD9mSx%2Bdw58BC9QovWWwwmHAcRKk1o%3D&reserved=0><https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F396239492_Why_we_should_not_describe_new_taxa_without_using_phylogenetics_Comment_on_Chen_et_al_2025&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0ee3d252f5f448d4716e08de073ee491%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638956163910862158%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cSQz4AtL7G6Yr30duY1VEi4JsUq2dWtJTUVnwqW8peU%3D&reserved=0>

Under the pressure of an overwhelming number of problematic new taxa, we call for taxonomists to incorporate phylogenetic methods and reasoning into their taxonomic work. I understand that many may disagree, but please allow me to explain.

This paper briefly summarizes why taxonomy is a science, how taxonomy can be a science, how the ideas and methods of Kant, Darwin, Hennig, and Popper have influenced modern taxonomy, and why contemporary taxonomic research should not be separated from phylogenetics, both from the perspectives of history and the philosophy of science.

To reach readers who may be new to phylogenetics, we must emphasize that phylogenetics is not limited to molecular data. Although I belong to Generation Z, I am aware that phylogenetics was first widely applied to morphological characters long before molecular sequencing became common. While morphology-based phylogenetics may suffer from homoplasy, something is still better than nothing. Simply describing morphological patterns without an explicit phylogenetic framework is less informative and less scientific than conducting morphology-based phylogenetic analyses.

I am aware of previous arguments presented in the paper “Should we describe genera without molecular phylogenies?”, whose author strongly opposed our views and directly criticized our commentary during the review process. That paper lacked a clear understanding of phylogenetics based on morphological data, as also revealed during the review process of our own manuscript. The author wrote, “not to mention fossil taxa, which also need to be placed in the system obviously without molecular support.” I believe most paleontologists would disagree with this statement, as fossil taxa can indeed be placed within a phylogenetic framework using morphological characters.

In response to claims such as “we should invest more trust in the taxonomic evaluations of the decreasing number of taxonomists and allow more freedom for morphology-based grouping,” I would say: “Taxonomy should not become theology, where people are expected to believe without evidence.” Furthermore, I personally disagree with the statement “taxonomy is a science, and all new taxa that are proposed are hypotheses that can be refuted and falsified.” A taxon described solely by a fixed morphological pattern, as the author often does, cannot truly be falsified, since any additional variation can easily be reinterpreted as representing a new taxon. Such direct assertions are not falsifiable, much like religious doctrines. When synonyms or new taxonomic acts are later proposed, it merely reflects a redefinition of original taxa using new assertions or occasionally falsifiable methods.

Ultimately, this commentary only represents our perspective on taxonomic practice. We are also happy to receive any constructive feedback.

Best regards
Guoyi

Guoyi Zhang (she/her), MRes, PhD candidate
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University of New South Wales
Australian Museum Research Institute
Australian Museum

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