RE: Polytomies in cladistics: Good, Bad, or Ugly?

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

Phil Bigelow wrote-

> In cladistics, are polytomies (3 or more branches from one node)
> considered to be a valid working hypothesis, or are they instead viewed
> as an artefact of a limited data set, weaknesses in the algorithm, or a
> bad choice of test parameters?

I'd say they can be considered a working hypothesis in the sense they may 
indicate rapid speciation events.  But especially as the datasets get 
smaller, they are often indicative of a need for more characters.  I'd bet 
someone's written a technical paper on the topic, probably in Systematic 
Biology.

Mickey Mortimer