Classification phenetic

Penny D (1982) Toward a basis for classification the incompleteness of distance measures incompatibility analysis and phenetic classification. J Theoret Biol 96 129-142... 

Recent advances in numerical taxonomy including character weighting and evolutionary interpretations. Developments in phenetic classification of hominids and other groups. Nature of characters and biological significance of correlation [Pg.182]

For evolutionary studies, the classification of species also allows the construction of phytogenies, which may shed light on the relationship between observed pattern of speciation and the nature of evolutionary forces. A distinction should be made between phenetic and cladistic data. The phe-netic relationships are similarities based on the degree of similarity, whereas cladistic relationships contain information about ancestry and can be used to study evolutionary pathways. Both of these relationships are best portrayed as phylogenetic trees or dendrograms, respectively (57). 

Apart from the underlying principles, there are the questions of how the data are obtained and their limitations. With the phenetic method, characters used are those for which it is possible to make the necessary quantitative measurements. With the cladistic method, it is rarely possible to determine each branch point, especially where convergent evolution has occurred. The phenetic method produces a practical classification but lacks the deeper philosophical justification of the cladistic method. However, both methods often give similar results, but differences arise, as in the example in Fig. 1.2. Although the crocodile and lizard show greater morphological similarity to one another than to the bird, birds and crocodiles have more recent common ancestors than crocodiles and lizards. 

Fig. 1.2. An example of phenetic and phylogenetic principles of classification, (a) The probable evolutionary tree for lizard, crocodile and bird. The distances separating the three are a measure of their phenotypic differences, (b) Phenetic relationships, (c) Phylogenetic relationships.

Blackwelder, R.E., Phyletic and phenetic versus omnispective classification, in Phenetic and Phylogenetic Classification A Symposium, Heywood, V.H. and McNeill, J., Eds., The Systematics Association, London, 1964, pp. 17-28. 

In fact there was already a publication and justification of maximum parsimony in the systematics literature, for at the Systematics Association meeting, Phenetic and Phylogenetic Classification, in Liverpool in 1964 (Heywood and McNeill, 1964 Figure 8.1) Cavalli-Sforza and I had referred to the use of our method of minimum evolution and had commented, It is probable that this method gives a tree which is approximately the same as the projection... 

Phenetic and Phylogenetic Classification (f964)f Edited by V.H. Heywood and J. McNeill... 

Phenetic and phylogenetic classification (1964)i-Edited by V.H.Heywood and J.McNeill... 

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