Phylogenetic Systematics by Any Other Name?

Abstract

The Branching of a Paradigm, in which editors David Williams and Sandra Knapp state that "this book represents an attempt to document the nature and anticipate the future of cladistics," and explain that their "original intention was to explore the possibilities that lie beyond cladistics, regarding cladistics as the single dominating methodology of systematics" (p. xi). In "Endemism and evolution of the Macaronesian flora," Mark A. Carine, Arnoldo Santos-Guerra, I. Rosana Guma, and J. Alfredo Reyes-Betancott rely on a phylogenetic analysis using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence data to characterize biogeographic patterns, interisland radiations, and growth forms among endemics. In "Tethys and teleosts," Peter L. Forey examines three issues regarding the utility of phylogenetic hypotheses for Cretaceous teleost fishes: filling out causal conditions implied by those trees with actual data on geological events (e.g., vicariance), determining rates of taxon evolution, and determining rates of teleost morphological evolution.