pls3

Comparing and Contrasting Methodologies

G.F. Guala

You have already learned about the cladistic method with parsimony. Given what you have learned, we are now going to compare it to some other methods.

Historically there were several key paradigm shifts that greatly influenced how we do systematics now.

Realization of persistent diversity (basic to survival)
Hierarchical systems (e.g. Aristotle & many others)
Sexual system and binomial systems (Linneaus)
Realization of evolving systems as opposed to basic forms (Darwin & Wallace)
Integration of evolution with classification ( The great synthesis of Stebbins et al. - many others)
Evolutionary taxonomists (e.g. Rollins, Cronquist, Bessey etc.)
Phenetics & distance methods (e.g. Camin & Sokal, Sneath et al. - Sibley & Ahlquist)
Conjecture and Refutation - falsifiability - scientific logic etc. (Popper)
Parsimony - the synthesis of evolution, taxonomy & scientific logic (Hennig, Wagner)
Evolutionary fit models (e.g. Maximum likelihood, minimum evolution etc.)

Evolutionary taxonomy is a historical method now.
Some phenetic analyses can be useful but "blind" methods of phylogeny discovery are also historical.

Comparing and Contrasting Methodologies

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