follow up on paraphyly / polyphyly

[Quicke, Donald L J]

hi

the difference is surely one of how the backbone of the phylogeny would be reconstructed if the taxon in question were coded as a character and you say coded under deltran optimisation. but there will be a class of ambiguous cases which i think are usually called polyphyletic.

Donald


-----Original Message-----
From:   Taxacom Discussion List on behalf of Barry M. OConnor
Sent:   Wed 11/10/2004 8:27 PM
To:     TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU
Cc:	
Subject:             Re: follow up on paraphyly / polyphyly
At 1:12 PM -0700 11/10/04, Derek Sikes wrote:
>Dear Taxacomers,
>
>Thanks to those who have replied already. I thought I might add one
>additional bit on this issue:...

I've generally taught that when evaluating previously named taxa in the
light of phylogenetic analysis, paraphyletic groups are those that some
folks will defend to the death, while polyphyletic groups are those most
people realize are "mistakes"! - Barry

Barry M. OConnor
Curator & Professor             phone: (734) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (734) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
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