Rescued from truncation: ===================
The alternative is just making a name de novo every time you want to name a minor clade=2C and that tends to lead to bizarre names like Laurasiformes as a clade of macronarians. I'm not crazy about that. =20 -- Mike.
There's no such thing as a "minor" clade. This is the sort of typological t= hinking that Ranks provided us=2C that the ICZN enforced with its "only Fam= ilies=2C Genera and Species matter" attitude=2C and continues to stand in t= he way of people willing to break the constraints of the old system. We are= told "it works=2C" but it doesn't=3B it's a crutch for the sake of somethi= ng that feels familiar and functional (nesting nomenclature)=2C but it is o= therwise useless aside from the feeling of having your names chosen for you= . It means less memorization=2C but it means sticking with a system and a t= ypological thinking that is fundamentally flawed. As long as the system is = used=2C and continues to be used=2C it will impair the breaking of the "Ran= ks-are-useful" mind-set that pervades systematic biology and [to a lesser e= xtent] paleontology. Cheers=2C Jaime A. Headden The Bite Stuff (site v2) http://qilong.wordpress.com/