Taxonomic stability is Ignorance

EDUARDO DOMINGUEZ; QUENTIN WHEELER

CLADISTICS (PRINT)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 1997 vol. 13 p. 367 - 372

0748-3007

Absolute nomenclatural stability is undesirable in phylogenetic classifications because they reflect changing hypotheses of cladistic relationships. De Queiroz and Gauthier,s (1990: Syst. Zool. 39, 307-322; 1992: A. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 23, 449-480) alternative to Linnaean nomenclature is concluded to provide stable names for unstable concepts. In terms of communicating either characters shared by species of a named taxon or elements (species) included in a taxon, de Queiroz and Gauthier´s system is less stable than the Linnaean system. Linnaean ranks communicate limited information about inclusivity of taxa, but abandonment of ranks results in the loss of such information. As cladistic hypothesis advance, taxa named under de Queiroz and Gauthier´s system can change in its spelling. The linnaean system has been retained by taxonomists because its hierarchic ranks are logically compatible with nested sets of species, monophyletic groups, and characters. Other authors have offered conventions to increase the cladistic information content of Linnaean names or to replace them with names that convey cladistic knowledge in greater detail; de Queiroz and Gauthier sacrifice the meaning of taxon names and categorical ranks in favor of spelling stability