return to main index

  mobile - desktop
follow us on facebook follow us on twitter follow us on YouTube link to us on LinkedIn
 
click here for Rodent Pro
This Space Available
3 months for $50.00
Locate a business by name: click to list your business
search the classifieds. buy an account
events by zip code list an event
Search the forums             Search in:
News & Events: Herp Photo of the Day: Memories . . . . . . . . . .  Herp Photo of the Day: Snake . . . . . . . . . .  Bay Area Herpetological Society Meeting - Oct 24, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Suncoast Herp Society Meeting - Oct 25, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  DFW Herp Society Meeting - Oct 25, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Southwestern Herp Society Meeting - Nov 01, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Greater Cincinnati Herp Society Meeting - Nov 05, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  St. Louis Herpetological Society - Nov 09, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Colorado Herp Society Meeting - Nov 15, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Chicago Herpetological Society Meeting - Nov 16, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  San Diego Herp Society Meeting - Nov 18, 2025 . . . . . . . . . .  Suncoast Herp Society Meeting - Nov 22, 2025 . . . . . . . . . . 
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
full banner - advertise here .50¢/1000 views
Click here for Hornworms from Pioneer Feeders
pool banner - $50 year

RE: Sure, it probably isn't the final word....

[ Login ] [ User Prefs ] [ Search Forums ] [ Back to Main Page ] [ Back to Taxonomy Discussion ] [ Reply To This Message ]
[ Register to Post ]

Posted by: CKing at Tue Apr 6 20:37:28 2004  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by CKing ]  
   

Maxson would be the last person on earth to tell anyone, including you, that her data has "fallen by the wayside for better, more modern techniques." It is true that immunological techniques are no longer used widely today, because of the ease with which DNA can be sequenced, but the molecule that Maxson and Wilson were working with, namely serum albumin, is highly informative, because it is not constrained by natural selection. Amino acid substitutions within this molecule are therefore due purely to chance, and it is therefore an excellent molecule for estimating relative lineage divergence times. Systematists have rarely found a better molecular characters with which to work. Even mtDNA mutations are not completely neutral as it is still very much functional, unlike serum albumin.

Secondly, only those who are dogmatic, for example the cladists, would openly ignore criticism and/or opposing evidence. There is no shortage of evidence opposing the placement of Hyla chrysoscelis as the most basal species in Moriarty and Cannatella's tree, and there is no shortage of criticism on the cladists' "destructive, impractical and scientifically untenable" classifications (Mayr and Ashlock 1991).


   

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]


>> Next Message:  so, why is she now doing mtDNA work herself? - troy h, Mon Apr 12 23:53:31 2004

<< Previous Message:  RE: Sure, it probably isn't the final word.... - shawn lockhart, Tue Apr 6 16:46:22 2004