Taxonomy is dead!?!

From: "Eduardo Goncalves" edggon at hotmail.com> on 2001.04.13 at 02:17:51(6182) Hi Al, Very interesting comment, indeed. The PhyloCode have some interesting advantages, and many problems too. Anyway, it makes no difference which approach you are using: probably both are wrong. Taxonomy reflects the biodiversity just like Euclidean Geometry reflects the real world. Have you ever seen perfect cubes, pyramids or prisms occurring naturally in our world? No? Neither me. We are all pretenders... I think I need another job! ;o) +More Sincerely, Eduardo - Old-fashioned plant taxonomist (Endangered species) P.S. Maybe someday we will create some kind of "Fractal Taxonomy"... Anyway, it will take much time! >Taxonomy was the subject of an interesting article in Science Vol 291 No >5512 >p2304 entitled "Linnaeus's Last Stand". It reports a then-impending >(30-31 March) Sympsoium in D. C. on a new system for classification which >the call 'PhyloCode'. Under this proposal, "which seeks to reflect >phylogenetic relationships, genus names could be lost, species names >shortened, hyphenated with former genus descriptor, or given a numeric >designation. The critics are not happy." The article is extensive and >interesting (though I can imagine this proposal's acceptance in aroid-l >would be scant). The article concludes with the note that over the >next several years, we will probably find researchers naming organisms with >both approaches. Some argue for a complete break with traditional names to >avoid confusion. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

From: Paul Tyerman tyerman at dynamite.com.au> on 2001.04.13 at 05:49:04(6184) Howdy Eduardo, >Have you >ever seen perfect cubes, pyramids or prisms occurring naturally in our >world? No? Neither me. We are all pretenders... I think I need another job! >;o) Actually, there are various crystalline structures that go extremely close to Cubes and Pyramids...... they occur naturally, so I suppose that there ARE some naturally occuring. Often things do exist... we just haven't found them yet. Cheers. Paul Tyerman +More Canberra, Australia. USDA equivalent - Zone 8 mailto:tyerman@dynamite.com.au Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Lilium, Aroids, plus just about anything else that doesn't move!!!!!

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