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Re: Some thoughts on AVES (& gaps)
In a message dated Fri, 2 Nov 2001 3:04:53 PM Eastern Standard Time,
"Demetrios M Vital" <vita0015@umn.edu> writes:
> In the emails I sent earlier today, I wrote that, yes, the gaps are
> "helpful" (if you are trying to exploit them) in the fossil record, but the
> system falls apart with extant organisms. I won't bother repeating the
> entire email.
Ah, I see. But there *are* gaps--and helpful ones, too--when dealing with
extant organisms: not every individual organism alive will ever be submitted
to scientific phylogenetic study, just as not every organism that ever lived in
the past is available as a fossil.
--Nick P.