Re[2]: Linnean Classification and Creationism

["Cunningham, Betty" <bcunning@nssi.com>]

DinoGeorge said:
     
I have a problem with the word "exist," which was first brought 
home to me when I discussed the idea of "species" with a cladist 
(before my boycott of the sci.bio.paleontology newsgroup). I 
explained that any species that is ancestral to any other species 
is by definition a paraphyletic taxon, because it no longer 
includes all its descendants, and that for cladists to allow 
species, but not other taxa, to speciate is inconsistent. He 
explained that when a species speciates, it "ceases to exist," and 
is thus not a paraphyletic taxon. So, for example, when a new 
species B "buds off" as a subpopulation of species A, species A 
vanishes (just like that!) and is replaced by species B and a new 
species, C, which holds all those descendants of A that are not in 
B.
     
(No--I'm serious! This is how he said it!!)
     
Well, if the species "ceases to exist," what meaning does this 
have for the clade that comprises the descendants of that no- 
longer-existing species? It would seem, from the foregoing, that 
the only parts of any clade that "exist" are the terminal taxa, 
and that most of the clade therefore does not "exist." 
----------------------
No, stop, my head hurts.
     
 Is there a pre-existing taxa for the group that everyone will 
automatically use, or do the developers of the new subspecies get 
to rename dogs?
     
-Betty