Re: Quo vadis, T. rex? [long]

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-02-09 13:16:31 EST, pharrinj@PLU.edu (Nicholas J.
Pharris) writes:

>I understand that the ancestor of the daughter taxon is to be found 
>somewhere in the parataxon, but so are a lot of other animals not 
>directly ancestral to the daughter taxon.  As I see it, it is better 
>simply to look at the daughter taxon as part of the radiatin of 
>forms in the parataxon, which then, as an added benefit, becomes 
>monophyletic.

No, the common ancestor of the daughter taxon belongs with the daughter
taxon, not with the parent parataxon. I see no real benefit to monophyly,
which is merely a special form of paraphyly in which the number of subtracted
clades is zero.