Re: Philosophies for Character Ordering

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>

> A taxon that makes a "jump" from "0" to "2" is inferred to have gone
> through stage "1" in its evolution (I made this point by bringing up where
> a taxon can incorporate two vertebrae into the sacrum simultaneously
> rather than one by one; the machine will interpret this the same way).
> This is an intrinsic assumption of an unobserved process of evolution,

Yes. Though, in this case, the simultaneous incorporation of 2 verts into
the sacrum can only happen when one is a dorsal and the other a caudal;
otherwise the one closer to the sacrum can't help being sacralized first. So
we still have 2 steps, even though they happen at the same time. Right?