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linean taxonomy vs cladestics
Topic Started: Jun 15 2018, 12:33 PM (612 Views)
LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Well, it's not a problem really, just more inconvenient.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
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Rodlox
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Jun 19 2018, 12:53 PM
Linnaean classification really doesn’t have uniform suffixes. The only rank that has a required format is the family rank, and even that differs in different groups. For example, in animals it ends in -idae and in plants it ends in -aceae. While it’s true that some groups, like birds, have orders that all end in the same suffix, that doesn’t have to be the case, just look at mammalian and retilian orders.

The Linnaean classification system is still useful when only extant or modern biological systems are being discussed, for example in conservation. But if you are looking at anything from an evolutionary biology perspective, Linnaean classification just isn’t useful. There’s no point to assigning ranks when there is a nearly unlimited number of theoretically possible clades in existence. However, the idea of a species can still be useful because it is the smallest useful group in evolutionary biology. And we have to categorize life into some sort of system to be able to study it at all. Species are just the best way to do that, at least for now. And I seriously doubt we’ll ever abandon the concept of species, because that would just be a huge problem converting everything we know into whatever new system someone could come up with.
if nothing else, it gives you an orderlyness at a given point in time...and, when discussing that point in time, it makes discussion easier.

NO system is flawless or foolproof - each system has its strengths and weaknesses.
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Parts of the Cluster Worlds:
"Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP)
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