RE: Ancestors [was: Re: And while on the theory of phylogenetic reconstruction...]

["T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>]

--- Mike Milbocker <mmilbocker@psdllc.com> wrote:
> Reading the below discussion it occurs to me that "basal" and "root" or
> outgroup have quite different meanings.

I think the real problem might be that "basal" is sometimes used to mean "of
the root" and sometimes used to mean "of the outgroup".

> The root states
> and the basal states, at least according to the discussion below, are almost
> entirely mutually exclusive.

No, they're the same thing. E.g., the ancestral dinosaur, the "root" of
_Dinosauria_, was bipedal, hence, bipedality is a basal trait for _Dinosauria_.
(Unless I've misunderstood what you mean by "root".)

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