Re: where have all the etc.

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting David Peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>:

> > > > > Okay, let me repeat what you are saying in my own words as I
> understand it: There is a 'problem' in that I have insufficient
> characters in my analysis. But in this partcular rabbit hole leading to
> Wonderland the problem is that I have complete resolution and all sister
> taxa resemble each other. My friends, that's no problem. That's a
> solution.

"For every complex problem, there is a simple solution...and it is wrong."

-H.L. Mencken

Cladograms need to be constantly tested through addition of new characters to
see if they are congruent with the ones used previously.  Extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence; it is incumbent on you, who delight in making
extraordinary claims, to demonstrate that "your" characters outweigh "their"
characters in a phylogenetic analysis.  And there is no way to do that without
including all of "their" characters.

Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan