Platnick's view of Phylocode

[Curtis Clark]

At 02:08 PM 3/11/02, Ken Kinman wrote:
>I get the impression you think the Kinman System is useless without the
>coding.

By Platnick's measure, it is no more useful than Phylocode. His ideas of
information value require that taxa be both ranked and monophyletic.
Phylocode taxa are not ranked--they fail the test. Your taxa are not
reliably monophyletic (some are and some aren't, and without the coding it
is impossible to tell which is which), so they, too, fail the test. If one
accepts the logic behind Platnick's condemnation of Phylocode (as
contrasted to merely accepting the rhetoric), one must also find your
classification wanting.

You can't have it both ways.


--
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department             Voice: (909) 869-4062
California State Polytechnic University      FAX: (909) 869-4078
Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                  jcclark at csupomona.edu