This commentary offers a critical assessment of the molecular age of biological systematics
and deals with certain basic tendencies that seem to indicate a new phase of the discipline …

It is argued that both the principle of parsimony and the theory of evolution, especially that of
natural selection, are essential analytical tools in phylogenetic systematics, whereas the …

We live in the age of comparative genomics, and it may seem that there is not much point in
reconstructing phylogenies using morphological data anymore. As more and more genes …

The increasing rejection of traditional, character-based definitions of taxon names in favour
of ancestor-based definitions represents one of the more important recent trends in …

As a beginning, I offer a quotation from MacLeod (2002):" The fundamental observation of
biology is morphology. Morphological data form the basis of virtually all systematic …

In view of their propositional content (ie they can be right or wrong), character statements (ie
statements that predicate characters of organisms) are treated as low-level hypotheses. The …

The ancient discipline of biological tax? onomy has been very slow to incorporate major
shifts in world views throughout the millennia. Impervious to the derision of scientists from …

The development of the PhyloCode grew out of the recognition that the current rank-based
systems of nomenclature, as embodied in the current botanical, zoological, and …

The aim of systematics in an evolutionary paradigm ought not to be the construction of
(artificial) classes, but the reconstruction of (evolutionary) history (de Queiroz 1988; O'Hara …