RE: Gaia theropod follow-up: a "new" phylogeny

["King, Norm R" <NKing@usi.edu>]

Chris Brochu wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: chris brochu [mailto:cbrochu@fieldmuseum.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 6:47 AM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: RE: Gaia theropod follow-up: a "new" phylogeny

[snip]

>Regarding the last sentence - ALL matrices need to be tweaked to "work."
All of us are professional tweakers.  I'm at home with my oatmeal now, but
I'm on my way to the museum to tweak the day away.  Every paper in Syst Bio
has some tweaking in it.  Why is this a problem?<


Nothing has changed since the advent of cladistics.  Prior to this, we all
just furiously tweaked away in our heads, but left no trail to trace our
mental footsteps.  Often times, I think, people may even have forgot some of
the considerations of the moment by the time they got to the end conclusion.
Too much undocumented subjectivity.  Now, all the steps and alternatives are
explicit--everybody can see the "thought processes." 

This is a big improvement.  It takes paleontology from an art to a science.
Perhaps some people are surprised by the extent of formerly unacknowledged
mental activity that has always been a part of systematics.