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Reflections on Systematics and Phylogenetic Reconstruction

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Abstract

I attempt to raise questions regarding elements of systematics—primarily in the realm of phylogenetic reconstruction—in order to provoke discussion on the current state of affairs in this discipline, and also evolutionary biology in general: e.g., conceptions of homology and homoplasy, hypothesis testing, the nature of and objections to Hennigian “phylogenetic systematics”, and the schism between (neo)Darwinian descendants of the “modern evolutionary synthesis” and their supposed antagonists, cladists and punctuationalists.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Francisco Vergara-Silva and Rasmus Winther for giving me the opportunity to attempt this overview, and to them and the contributors to this issue for the provocations and challenges their papers provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Anthropology and History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217, USA

    Jeffrey H. Schwartz

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  1. Jeffrey H. Schwartz
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Correspondence to Jeffrey H. Schwartz.

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Schwartz, J.H. Reflections on Systematics and Phylogenetic Reconstruction. Acta Biotheor 57, 295–305 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-009-9078-9

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