Re: BRYONET: local endemics

BRYONET

Hi John,

There is a huge literature on monophyly and complicated factors,
written by me and others, which I can't repeat here. Processes like
reticulation, horizontal transfer, and lineage sorting result in some
parts of monophyletic groups having a different phylogeny than their
containing group (the so-called "gene-tree", "species-tree" problem).
These issues apply at all phylogenetic levels, not just at the species
level, so again are no reason to regard the species level as special!

The other issues you raise are red herrings, well debunked in the
literature already. With regards to the silversword example, nothing
is lost classifying the Hawaiian plants at a deeper level within
Madia, then showing the relationships among them by finer-scale clade
names. The only problem is imposed by the current code of
nomenclature, that won't allow genera to be nested inside of other
genera. If we adopt a rank-free classification as in the soon-to-be-
published Phylocode (http://www.ohio.edu/phylocode/) this artificial
problem disappears. The Hawaiian clades are in Madia, but also
variously in Dubautia, Wilkesia, and Argyroxiphium.

For bryologists, a similar approach can be used to recognize larger
clades traditionally named as genera such as Grimmia, Tortula, and
Mnium, simultaneously with more recently segregated groups such as
Schistidium, Syntrichia, and Rhizomnium.

Best,

Brent

**********************************************************
Brent D. Mishler
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
Director, University and Jepson Herbaria
Mailing address:
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
UNIVERSITY AND JEPSON HERBARIA
1001 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLDG # 2465
BERKELEY, CA 94720-2465 USA
Phone: (510) 642-6810
FAX: (510) 643-5390
E-mail: bmishler@calmail.berkeley.edu
WWW: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/people/mishler.html
**********************************************************

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