Re: Strange thoughts on PN - was Re: BAD vs. BADD

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Martin Baeker <martin.baeker@tu-bs.de>:

> I think there is one very basic disagreement on what nomenclature is
> good for between us: From what you write (here and below),
> nomenclature is used mainly by people talking about extinct animals
> and trying to reconstruct the history of life. However, biology (or
> zoology) is a bit larger than paleontology. For most of zoology, it
> would not matter the least whether on single dog species evolved to a
> flying monster or whatever, the grouping Canidae would still be useful
> 99% of the time.

I'm not sure I understand your point.  Under PN, the dog that evolved 
into a flying monster would remain a part of Canidae.  Under a Linnaean 
system, it might have to suddenly become something else.  Which 
alternative are you arguing for?

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land