RE: worrying decline

[Rich Grenyer <r.grenyer@ic.ac.uk>]

> With all due respect, this is hogwash.

Amen. One of the most important functions of phylogenetic 
reconstruction is not pinning names on nodes and cause taxonomists 
endless pain (and publications) but once the rather tedious business 
of working out how species are related is over and done with, to look 
at WHY that pattern of relatedness is like it is, what processes 
drive it, and what it can tell you about the way ('scuse the glib 
statement) life works and species evolve, both as individuals and 
communities. You simply can't do this without phylogenies - 
taxonomies may tell you groupings but they don't tell you how far 
each species is from any other and without this information it 
becomes much more difficult to quantify trends that you see.

Two cents well spent,

Rich