Genera in paleontology: Definition and significance

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Abstract
Three working concepts or definitions of the genus as a systematic category are available: the “phylogenetic”; or “cladistic”; concept, which views genera as monophyletic clades, the “phenetic”; or “gap”; concept, which views genera as clustered in morphological space, separated from other such groups by many differences, and the “hybridization”; concept, which holds that species in different genera can never hybridize. The hybridization concept is inapplicable to paleontological situations, leaving a choice between phenetic and phylogenetic concepts. This choice is important to both practicing paleontological taxonomists and to compilers of their work. All else being equal, evolutionary behavior of phenetically defined genera will not mirror that of species as well as phylogenetically defined genera; phenetically defined genera may have more biological reality and reveal more about the relationship between morphological change and speciation.