Re: Taxonomy is insane

[Robert.J.Meyerson@uwrf.edu (Rob Meyerson)]

GSPaul writes;
>After all, if we are going to demand money to
>do research, we might want to be able to produce some more meaningful
>results.

Would you clarify what these "meaningful results" would be?  I hope this is=
 not in the financial sense.

The big thing that separates paleontology from the other sciences is that=
 there is no way to make money off our work (except for certian cinema types=
 and toy manufacturers).  Right now, with our Imperial Mammoth controlled=
 Congress, the only thing that is worth doing is those things that make=
 money (especially on the short term basis).  Granted, for the majority of=
 fossil groups, the taxonomy is a real mess, but (IMHO) any paleo-type who=
 works on a group without trying to make sense of the taxonomy (phylogenies=
 included) can't be taken too seriously.  I don't think that a scientist can=
 really know a group without doing taxonomy first.

Comments?

Rob

***
Would a Night Mare be considered a galloping pun?