AN ANALYSIS OF THE TAXONOMIST'S JUDGMENT OF AFFINITY
- 1 July 1958
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Zoology
- Vol. 131 (1) , 85-98
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1958.tb00634.x
Abstract
SUMMARY: The basic idea of affinity as overall similarity, which is logically and historically prior to that of evolutionary affinity, is described. It is in constant use in taxonomy After an analysis of the ideas of different forms, the general plan of construction of an organism, similarity in general plan, and the single character, a procedure is worked out which makes precise the judgment of affinity, and enables us to obtain a numerical value for the mean character difference between any two forms As a result, it is shown that the family tree diagram can be used only for the evolutionary topology of a group, not for showing amount of evolutionary difference A measure of the relevance of a taxonomic comparison is described The possibility of giving a quantitative basis to the taxonomic hierarchy is pointed outThis publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- LOGIC AND MEMORY IN LINNAEUS'S SYSTEM OF TAXONOMY.Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 1958
- A survey of the energy transformations in living matterPublished by Springer Nature ,1957
- The Genus in Evolutionary TaxonomySystematic Zoology, 1956