David's question

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

David,
    I don't formally recognize intermediate taxa, like Paleognathae or 
Neognathae, in my classifications.  Only the main ranks like Class, Order, 
Family.   The coding to the left of the taxa show relationships, so while 
phylogeneticists continue to increase the numbers of formal taxa, I have 
decreased the numbers of formal taxa from what even most eclecticists 
generally use.  For example (in brief; I hope this lines up okay on 
everyone's screens):
  CLASS REPTILEA (reptiles, sensu lato)
       1   Pelycosauriformes
      _a_  Therapsiformes
      _a_  {{Mammalea}}
       2   Mesosauriformes
           .........etc.
       8   Saurischiformes
                 1  Guaibasauridae
                     ...... etc.
                14  Dromaeosauridae
                 ?  Alvarezsauridae (inc. sed.)
                15  {{Avea}}
      _a_  {{Avea}}
       9   Ornithischiformes
*************************************************
_a_ CLASS AVEA (emended from Aves)
       1   Archaeopterygiformes
           .......etc.
       5   Hesperornithiformes
       6   Ichthyornithiformes
       7   Tinamiformes
      _a_  Struthioniformes (ratites)
       8   Galliformes
       B   Anseriformes
       9   Ciconiiformes
       B   Pelecaniformes
       C   Procellariiformes
      10   Charadriiformes
           ........etc.
    The main cladistic sequence is numbered, subsidiary sequences are 
capital letters, and the underline "a", _a_, shows Tinamiformes is 
paraphyletic with respect to Struthioniformes (sensu lato; ratites), and 
that the sister group of ratites therefore is to be found within 
Tinamiformes.
    Likewise the _a_ shows AVEA (birds) have a sister group within 
Ornithischiformes, and I present code that sister group to be 
Dromaeosauridae.  If you want to show Alvarezsauridae to be sister group to 
birds, you could code it like this:
  14  Dromaeosauridae
  15  Alvarezsauridae
  16  {{Avea}}
    In the bird classification, I can refer to a clade Aves 7, or call them 
palaeognaths.  And I can refer to a clade 8+, or call them neognaths.  
Together they form clade Aves 7+ ("Neornithes"; neornitheans).  But with 
such coding (which can be changed if the cladogram changes), I don't have to 
formally name every clade (and just give informal names to the most 
important "intermediate taxa" (neornitheans, neognaths, etc.).
                        -----Ken
P.S.  And I wouldn't totally agree that cladists have given up 
ranks-----they just have so many that they just stopped giving labels to the 
ranks.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com