Give us a break

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

Nick,
     I certainly hope you are kidding.  Sounds like Crown-group-mania.  A 
separate Class for turtles?  And do you know what a caecilian looks like?--- 
more like a snake or worm than a frog.  Do ornithischians look more like 
birds or beasts (and is a bat more beasty or birdy-looking)?   What about 
ichthyosaurs (neither snaky nor birdy).  Not to mention that -opsida is the 
ending botanists give to metaphyte classes.
     There is nothing wrong with four classes of tetrapods (Amphibia, 
Reptilia, Aves, & Mammalia), except that the first two are paraphyletic with 
respect to those that follow.  And of course, that is the primary sin of 
cladistic religiosity:
 "Thou shall not commit formal paraphyly."
     Come hell or high water, confusion, instability, inconvenience, 
condemned for Ivory Tower snobbery, creating a legalistic, bureaucratic 
maze, that will even drive cladists crazy.   Sacrifice all else, but destroy 
all the heathen formal paraphyletic groups, and one will earn a place in 
Cladist Heaven.
     Pardon me if some formal paraphyly or impure Latinization offends the 
purists, but I'll take fewer names, greater utility, relative stability, and 
a little common sense any day.  Thank you Benton, Dodson, Cavalier-Smith, 
Mayr, and Ashlock.   They, most biologists, and the public that support your 
work, all cry out to the pure cladists:
              GIVE US A BREAK.
                        ------- Ken
**********************************************************
> >
> Well, to be perfectly honest, if I had my druthers, I'd recognize six major
> stem-based groups ("classes") of tetrapods, anchored on typical living
> representatives:
>
> Batrachopsida ("froggy-looking things"): {_Rana_>_Homo_, _Chelone_, 
> _Vipera_,
> _Crocodylus_, _Passer_}.  Would currently include frogs, salamanders,
> caecilians, etc.
>
> Theropsida ("beasty-looking things"): {_Homo_>_Rana_, _Chelone_, _Vipera_,
> _Crocodylus_, _Passer_}.  Would currently include mammals, other 
> therapsids,
> "pelycosaurs".
>
> Chelonopsida ("turtlish-looking things"): {_Chelone_>_Rana_, _Homo_, etc.}.
> Would include turtles and whatever the heck they're most closely related 
> to.
>
> Herpetopsida ("snaky-looking things"): {_Vipera_>_Rana_, _Homo_, etc.}.
> Would include snakes, other lizards, tuataras, etc.
>
> Crocodilopsida ("crocodilish-looking things"): {_Crocodylus_>_Rana_, 
> _Homo_,
> etc.}.  Would include crocodilians as well as aetosaurs, rauisuchians,
> phytosaurs, etc. (depending on just where turtles fit in).
>
> Ornithopsida ("birdy-looking things"): {_Passer_>_Rana_, _Homo_, etc.}.
> Would include birds and other dinosaurs, "lagosuchians", and perhaps
> pterosaurs.
>
> Other "classes" could (but need not necessarily) be named analogically for
> groups that do not fit into any of the above clades.
>
> --Nick P.
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