Phylogenetic systematics character analysis

Phylogenetic analysis, steps of, 107, 108 Phylogenetic bone fusion, patterns on, 164 Phylogenetic cladistics, 107, 112 Phylogenetics, moleculai 268 Phylogenetic systematics character analysis, 109 logic of, 96... 

In the last few years, the DNA revolution has begun to have a dramatic Impact on the field of plant systematics. Access to the various plant genomes-chloroplast, mitochondrial, and nuclear-has provided the systematist with a virtually inexhaustible source of characters for phylogenetic analysis. 

The central tenets of the falsificationist philosophy of Karl R. Popper are reviewed in detail, and the way they do or do not apply to systematics and phylogeny reconstruction is analyzed. Cladistic analysis, cast in either maximum parsimony or in maximum likelihood approaches, is not compatible with Popperian falsificationism. The main reasons are the absence of a deductive link between a hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships and character distribution on a tree, which translates into the absence of the basic asymmetry of falsification versus verification. This sets Popper s philosophy of science apart from inductive systems. In cladistic analysis, falsification (disconfirmation) is symmetrical to verification (confirmation), which reveals an inductive and hence probabilistic background. The basic problem of systematics as an empirical science resides in character conceptualization and its critical evaluation. 

Brower, A.V.Z., Homology and the inference of systematic relationships some historical and philosophical perspectives, in Homology and Systematics Coding Characters for Phylogenetic Analysis, Scotland, R.W. and Pennington, T, Eds., Taylor and Francis, London, 2000a,... 

Maddison, W. P. (1993). Missing data versus missing characters in phylogenetic analysis. Systematic Biology, 42, 576-581. 

Stevens, P. F. (2000). On characters and character states Do overlapping and non-overlapping variation, morphology and molecules aU yield data of the same value pp. 81-105 in Scodand, R. W. and Permington, T. (eds.). Homology and Systematics. Coding Characters for Phylogenetic Analysis. London Taylor and Francis. 

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