[Taxacom] Null Hypothesis in Taxonomy

[Bob Mesibov]

Zander's is a fascinating post and it echoes an argument that Kirk Fitzhugh 
has made in his excellent recent papers on the logical basis of systematics. 
Phylogenetic hypotheses only explain character state distributions. You need 
a different class of data (other than character state distributions) to test 
such a hypothesis. To Zander's 'niche' and 'functional evolution' I would 
add 'geographic distribution', for reasons that  TAXACOM veterans have heard 
me write about ad nauseam.
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Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195

Australian Millipedes Checklist
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Tasmanian Multipedes
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/multipedes/mulintro.html
Spatial data basics for Tasmania
http://www.utas.edu.au/spatial/locations/index.html
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