Re: Cladospeak: Bonnan errata and corrections

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/5/01 9:58:31 AM EST, mbonnan@hotmail.com writes:

<< I believe George was saying, instead, that groups are not 
 defined by characters but are diagnosed by how those characters separate 
 them from other taxa.  Right? =) >>

Well, indirectly. Groups are now >defined< in terms of phyletic 
relationships, e.g., common ancestor  of x and y plus all its descendants 
(node group) or all organisms more closely related to x than to y (stem 
group). Once a group is defined, the problem is to figure out whether a given 
organism is in the group or out of the group, and that's where the characters 
come in.

I support this method of doing taxonomy, although it has not yet been taken 
to its logical conclusion in many instances (e.g., accepting Peter Ax's 
definition of stem-group birds as including dinosaurs).