Cladistics and the land plants: A response to Robinson |
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Authors: | Brent D Mishler Steven P Churchill |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Botany, Duke University, 27706, Durham, NC 2. New York Botanical Garden, 10458-5126, Bronx, NY
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Abstract: | The reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships should be based not on belief but on an explicit and logical analysis of all available characters. Hennigian phylogenetic systematics (cladistics) provides a framework for evaluating putative homologies characterizing particular hierarchical levels, determining relationships of taxa sharing congruent patterns of homologies, and constructing a classification based on this information. Fossils can and should be included in the analysis if enough of the relevant characters are preserved; this is not currently possible for early land plants because of the fragmentary fossil record. To avoid circularity, adaptive and functional considerations should be addressed only after a phylogenetic hypothesis based on patterns on patterns of shared homologies is available. |
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