Re: Pan-clades, good or bad?

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

> Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 10:40:05 -0700
> From: Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>
> 
> > " "Pansphenisciformes" is used here as a name for all taxa more
> > closely related to extant penguins than to any other extant avian
> > taxa.  [...] These definitions are deliberately not formalized
> > pending recommendation of the PhyloCode regarding the proposed use
> > of "pan" as a prefix in all stem clade names (Gauthier and de
> > Queiroz, 2001 )
> 
> What are others' opinions on using the Pan- prefix for all
> stem-based clades?  Personally, I find it terribly monotonous.

_All_ stem clades?  Not just those of the form "this extant critter
and everything more closely related to it than anything else alive
today?  Yuck.

I take it the full Gauthier-and-de-Queiroz reference is:

        Gauthier, J. and K. de Queiroz. 2001. Feathered dinosaurs,
        flying dinosaurs, crown dinosaurs, and the name "Aves".
        pp. 7-41 in J. Gauthier and L. F. Gall (eds.), New
        Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds:
        Proceedings of the International Symposium in Honor of John
        H. Ostrom. New Haven: Peabody Museum of Natural Historty, Yale
        University.

Right?  If you have a PDF of this, I would like to see it.

> > "Sphenisciformes" is suggested as a name for all parts of this
> > lineage with a loss of aerial flight homologous with that of
> > extant penguins.

May I also point out that this is a horrible use of the word lineage,
which of course comes from the same root as "linear", meaning a
straight line.  Here it is used to mean a sub-tree of a branching
tree, which is absolutely not linear.  Why the authors didn't just say
"all parts of this clade" I can't imagine.

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