Summary
The advent of molecular phylogenetics stimulated the need to reprise for many discussions surrounding species concepts. The interpretation of cladograms as accurate representations of phylogeny, when the characters upon which they are based exhibit a reticulate pattern, is inconsistent with the epistemological axiom of hierarchy we assign to the cladistic method (Brower, 2000c). Discrepancies in the interpretation of cladograms would appear to account for differences in the kinds of questions to which they are applied. The philosphical and empirical issues surrounding this subject are examined in this chapter.
Biologists and philosophers have long recognized the importance of species. Yet species concepts serve two masters, evolutionary theory on the one hand and taxonomy on the other.
Cracraft (1987b: 329)
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© 2002 Springer Basel AG
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Goldstein, P.Z., Brower, A.V.Z. (2002). Molecular systematics and the origin of species: new syntheses or methodological introgressions?. In: DeSalle, R., Wheeler, W., Giribet, G. (eds) Molecular Systematics and Evolution: Theory and Practice. EXS 92, vol 92. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8114-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8114-2_11
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-9442-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-8114-2
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