Re: Non-serpentine lacertids (was RE:WHAT'S GOING ON?)

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

George,
    I think Tom is also wrong in trying to make a distinction between 
species taxa and higher taxa.  Chris was talking about taxa as individuals, 
but they seem to feel that removal somehow destroys the the "completeness" 
and naturalness of such "individuals".  Is a mother any less an individual 
after she gives birth?
    They are probably just too attached to the sister species concept 
(convention actually).  In reality a mother species gives birth to a 
daughter species.  So I don't think it unnatural to think of a mother class 
(Reptilia) giving rise to a daughter Class (Aves) when the daughter gives 
rise to a very successful and divergent lineage.
    They can say it is arbitrary exactly where one cuts the umbilical cord, 
and in that way get away from confronting the real issue (removal).  
Actually, they don't have "tomophobia"---it is paraphylophobia, which is 
reinforced through 30 years of peer pressure.
    It's not cutting that bothers them, since they slice up their trees 
like everybody else.  It's that paraphyletic removal that scares them, even 
the way it is done in the Kinman System (which shouldn't scare them at all, 
but they respond to it without considering, much less understanding, the 
advantages).  It's sort of like a knee-jerk reaction.
                           ------Ken Kinman
********************************************************
> From: Dinogeorge@aol.com
> Reply-To: Dinogeorge@aol.com
> To: tmk@dinosauricon.com
> CC: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Non-serpentine lacertids (was RE:WHAT'S GOING ON?)
> Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 16:18:09 EDT
>
> In a message dated 7/3/00 3:03:18 PM EST, tmk@dinosauricon.com writes:
>
> << But why cut at all, when it obscures phylogeny? >>
>
> Why not cut, when "every child knows" the difference between a bird and a
> dinosaur? Not cutting obscures morphology.
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