Re: Ancestors [was: Re: And while on the theory of phylogeneticreconstruction...]

["Jonathan R. Wagner" <jonathan.r.wagner@mail.utexas.edu>]

Drat you Keesey for not cc-ing me! ;)


> And if it's time that you're talking about, you might as well use "early"
> instead of "basal".

You've got the idea!!!!!


> Good points. It does seem to me that there is still one area where the
term
> "basal" is useful, and that's in describing characters, e.g. "bipedality
is
> basal for _Dinosauria_", "hair is a basal trait for _Mammalia_",
"ectothermy is
> the basal condition for _Amniota_",

Sure, but "ancestral" is MUCH more clear in all of these cases (and more
politically correct than "primitive!").


> "monotremes retain the reproductive system of basal _Mammalia_", etc.

Well, I would argue that, in this case, you are dangerously close to
"slopping" over into the distasteful use of the word against which I raved.


Wagner