We've demolished groups such as Pachyderma, relocating its members
(rhinos, elephants, etc) to their true relatives...and yet the
tuatara, aardvark and pangolin are set aside in their own groups with
no near extant relatives. so, if there is no way to quantify it, why
do we keep them separate?
> So the differences that make up the phyla represent 'huge'
> differences that accumulated over a long period of time, and
> therefore the phyla originated in the pre-Cambrian. Orders in the
> Cretaceous, etc. Again, not advocating that, but I think that's the
> idea behind it.
ah, okay; yeah, that makes sense for things further away in deep
time.