Re: Dollodon status questioned

[Denver Fowler <df9465@yahoo.co.uk>]

Forwarded for Liz Freedman 



On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 1:36 AM, Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com> wrote:

>   I wonder if McDonald uses some more substantive reasoning (optimistically, 
> I 
>assume he does) than in the abstract -- which is, let's face it, an abstract. 
>I 
>haven't the paper, but will soon.
>

Not really - he runs a PCA on a mere 3 measurements for each specimen
(which would give any statistician a heart attack), and those 3
measurements are all known to vary with the size of the specimen
(i.e., likely ontogenetically). Axis 1 (80% of variance) is probably
based entirely on the size of the specimen, with no real taxonomic
value.

-Liz Freedman