Hello Annelid enthusiasts,
The following article by Nixon and Carpenter has just appeared in
Cladistics. These authors present a scathing and well-documented attack
on De Queiroz and Gauthier's Node Pointing System (NP) where each
node gets a name. It is from NP that the so-called "Phylocode" is being
developed. Examples are presented of the chaos and lack of stability that
would result from development of a parallel phylogenetic system for
classifying organisms. Nixon and Carpenter calculate that if there are 10
million species on Earth, then naming every node in the tree of life would
require an additional 9,999,999 names, most of which would probably
never be used by anyone except the original authors.
It would appear that the gauntlet has been thrown down and the battle
begun.
------------------------------
Kevin C. Nixon and James M. Carpenter. 2000. On the Other
"Phylogenetic Systematics". Cladistics 16(3): 298-318.
Abstract. De Queiroz and Gauthier, in a serial paper, argue that biological
taxonomy is in a sad state, because taxonomists harbor "widely held belief"
systems that are archaic and insufficient for modern classification, and that
the bulk of practicing taxonomists are essentialists. Their paper argues for
the scrapping of the current system of nomenclature, but fails to provide
specific rules for the new "Phylogenetic Systematics"-instead we have
been presented with a vague and sketchy manifesto based upon the
assertion that "clades are individuals" and therefore must be pointed at with
proper names, rather than diagnosed by synapomorphies. They claim
greater stability for "node pointing," yet even their own examples show that
the opposite is true, and their node pointing system is only more stable in a
purely metaphysical sense detached from characters, evidence, usage of
names, and composition of groups. We will show that the node pointing
system is actually far LESS stable than the existing Linnaean System when
stability is measured by the rational method of determining the net change
in taxa (species) included in a particular group under different
classifications. Copyright 2000 The Willi Hennig Society.
We are grateful for the encouragement by countless working taxonomists
for our presentation and are somewhat less grateful for the arguments by
perpetrators of the NP System. We "thank" John Wenzel and Jyrki Muona
for trying to save us from ourselves.
--------------------------------
James A. Blake, Ph.D.
ENSR Marine & Coastal Center
89 Water Street
Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Tel: (508) 457-7900
FAX: (508) 457-7595
jablake at ix.netcom.com
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