[Taxacom] more science nonsense

[Michael Heads]

Why would the location of the most primitive species indicate the centre of
origin? Darwin thought that the most advanced species occupied the centre
of origin (and had pushed out the more primitive, inferior species to
remote areas).

On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 4:21 PM Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom <
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:

>  Hold on there one minute John!On the scale of "science nonsense", this
> might not even qualify! The key word is "suggests". The fossil does
> demonstrate that the oldest and most primitive *known* member of the group
> is from the Southern Hemisphere, so that it *evidence* that the group
> evolved there. It is the simplest explanation of the known facts, that's
> all. Otherwise, you have to posit the existence of unknown like fossils in
> the Northern Hemisphere, for which there is currently no evidence, and
> consider it chance that the first such fossil just happened to be found in
> the Southern Hemisphere. Sure, that it *possible*, but nobody seems to be
> saying that a Southern Hemisphere origin it is 100% certain, just that it
> is suggested by the new evidence.Stephen
>     On Wednesday, 2 October 2019, 03:04:40 am UTC, John Grehan via Taxacom
> <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>  Never ceases to amaze me. In a recent paper the following assertion:
>
> "All previously known Paleocene records of pelagornithids stem from the
> Northern Hemisphere, but as the oldest and phylogenetically most basal
> representative,
> Protodontopteryx suggests that these birds actually evolved in the Southern
> Hemisphere."
>
> Apart from the  center of origin illusion, there never has been any
> empirical demonstration that the location of the oldest fossil corresponds
> to the oldest occupied area for a taxon. But still they keep saying it as
> if it were real.
>
>
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335873378_Oldest_smallest_and_phylogenetically_most_basal_pelagornithid_from_the_early_Paleocene_of_New_Zealand_sheds_light_on_the_evolutionary_history_of_the_largest_flying_birds
>
>
> John Grehan
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> Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for 32 some years, 1987-2019.
>
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> Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for 32 some years, 1987-2019.
>


-- 
Dunedin, New Zealand.

My books:

*Biogeography and evolution in New Zealand. *Taylor and Francis/CRC, Boca
Raton FL. 2017.
https://www.routledge.com/Biogeography-and-Evolution-in-New-Zealand/Heads/p/book/9781498751872


*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge. 2014. www.cambridge.org/9781107041028


*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press,
Berkeley. 2012. www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271968


*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press,
New York. 1999. (With R. Craw and J. Grehan).
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Bm0_QQ3Z6GUC
<http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Bm0_QQ3Z6GUC&dq=panbiogeography&source=gbs_navlinks_s>