`You have the wrong paper.'



Ah. Sorry about that. I'll go look at the right paper, then, and get back to you. : )



`In some of these papers, the authors merely assume that Elaphe is polyphyletic.'



Which papers? And on what grounds do you conclude that it is merely assumption?



`You are placing too much weight on these papers that you have not read.'



Have you read them?



`Whatever weakness the Acta Zoologica Sinica paper may have is adequately addressed by the paper of Lopez and Maxson.'



Which suggests that we should just ignore the Acta Zoologica Sinica paper and only worry about the Lopez and Maxson paper.



`They include a large number of racers and find that none of the species of Elaphe cluster more closely to any of the racers than they do to each other. This is clear evidence that Elaphe is descended from a single species of racer; the ratsnakes are monophyletic. The morphological similarities among all species of ratsnakes are therefore shared derived characters, not convergences.'



BTW, to what morphological similarities are you referring?



`Paraphyly is the reason Utiger et al. are applying their machete to Elaphe, not because Elaphe is polyphyletic, since there is no evidence of polyphyly in their paper. Utiger et al. concede that paraphyletic taxa is the inevitable result of evolution, but it has not stopped them from splintering Elaphe because it is paraphyletic.'



Along with some of the unquoted material in your post, this has already been addressed. Feel free to rebut my rebuttals, but, until then, my simply repeating them here wouldn't accomplish much.



`Darwinians, on the other hand, insist that disqualifying or splintering paraphyletic taxa is scientifically untenable. I concur.'



I'd be interested in seeing any works you could cite in which taxonomists express this view. Though I'm well aware that some taxonomists (with which I happen to agree) view paraphyletic taxa as acceptable, I haven't ever seen the idea that all paraphyletic taxa are inherently valid and cannot be modified put forth.



Patrick Alexander

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