Table Of ContentThe Evolution of Phylogenetic
Systematics
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SPECIES AND SYSTEMATICS
www.ucpress.edu/go/spsy
The Species and Systematics series will investigate fundamental and practical aspects of
systematics and taxonomy in a series of comprehensive volumes aimed at students and
researchers in systematic biology and in the history and philosophy of biology. The
book series will examine the role of descriptive taxonomy, its fusion with cyber-
infrastructure, its future within biodiversity studies, and its importance as an empirical
science. The philosophical consequences of classifi cation, as well as its history, will be
among the themes explored by this series, including systematic methods, empirical
studies of taxonomic groups, the history of homology, and its signifi cance in molecular
systematics.
Editor in Chief: Malte C. Ebach (University of New South Wales, Australia)
Editorial Board
Sandra Carlson (University of California, Davis, USA)
Marcelo R. de Carvalho (University of São Paulo, Brazil)
Darren Curnoe (University of New South Wales, Australia)
Christina Flann (Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, The Netherlands)
Anthony C. Gill (University of Sydney, Australia)
Lynne R. Parenti (Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Olivier Rieppel (The Field Museum, Chicago, USA)
John S. Wilkins (University of Sydney, Australia)
Kipling Will (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
David M. Williams (The Natural History Museum, London, UK)
René Zaragüeta i Bagils (University of Paris 6, France)
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The Evolution of
Phylogenetic Systematics
EDITED BY
Andrew Hamilton
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
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Species and Systematics, Vol. 5
For online version, see www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2014 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The evolution of phylogenetic systematics / edited by
Andrew Hamilton.
pages cm — (Species and systematics ; v. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-27658-1 (cloth : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-520-95675-9 (ebook)
1. Cladistic analysis. 2. Biology—Classifi cation—
Philosophy. I. Hamilton, Andrew, 1972-
QH83.E96 2014
578.01′2—dc23 2013021973
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 2002)
(Permanence of Paper).
Cover illustration: Chart of Evolution (1937) by Borgny
Bay, Paleontological Museum, University of Oslo. Photo
by Colin Purrington, courtesy of the Gould Library,
Carleton College.
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Introduction
Andrew Hamilton 1
PART ONE. HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS 15
1 Refl ections on the History of Systematics
Robert E. Kohler 17
2 Willi Hennig’s Part in the History of Systematics
Michael Schmitt 47
3 Homology as a Bridge between Evolutionary
Morphology, Developmental Evolution, and Phylogenetic
Systematics
Manfred D. Laubichler 63
PART TWO. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 87
4 Historical and Conceptual Perspectives on Modern
Systematics: Groups, Ranks, and the Phylogenetic Turn
Andrew Hamilton 89
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vi | Contents
5 The Early Cladogenesis of Cladistics
Olivier Rieppel 117
6 Cladistics at an Earlier Time
Gareth Nelson 139
7 Patterson’s Curse, Molecular Homology, and the
Data Matrix
David M. Williams and Malte C. Ebach 151
8 History and Theory in the Development of Phylogenetics
in Botany
Brent D. Mishler 189
PART THREE. TECHNOLOGY, CONCEPTS, AND PRACTICE 211
9 Well-Structured Biology: Numerical Taxonomy’s
Epistemic Vision for Systematics
Beckett Sterner 213
10 A Comparison of Alternative Form-Characterization:
Approaches to the Automated Identifi cation of
Biological Species
Norman MacLeod 245
11 The New Systematics, the New Taxonomy, and the
Future of Biodiversity Studies
Quentin Wheeler and Andrew Hamilton 287
Index 303
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Contributors
Malte C. Ebach
University of New South Wales
[email protected]
Andrew Hamilton
University of Houston
[email protected]
Robert E. Kohler
University of Pennsylvania
[email protected]
Manfred D. Laubichler
Arizona State University
[email protected]
Norman MacLeod
Natural History Museum, London
University College London
[email protected]
Brent D. Mishler
University of California, Berkeley
[email protected]
vii
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viii | Contributors
Gareth Nelson
University of Melbourne
[email protected]
Olivier Rieppel
The Field Museum
orieppel@fi eldmuseum.org
Michael Schmitt
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universitaet
[email protected]
Beckett Sterner
University of Chicago
[email protected]
Quentin Wheeler
Arizona State University
[email protected]
David Williams
Natural History Museum, London
[email protected]
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Introduction
ANDREW HAMILTON
TRENDS AND TRADITIONS IN PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS
In spring 2006 I met with the entomologist and systematic theorist
Quentin Wheeler to discuss topics of common interest: species concepts,
methodology in systematics, the recent history of phylogenetic classifi -
cation, and biodiversity from a systematics perspective. The conversa-
tion turned out to have a surprising twist. Quentin was founding a new
research center at Arizona State University—the International Institute
for Species Exploration (IISE)—that would have a focus on the history
and philosophy of systematics. I jumped at the chance to direct this part
of the Institute’s program because I saw that there was plenty of work
to be done that would best be accomplished through the collaborative
efforts of systematists, historians, and philosophers.
With help from Manfred Laubichler, I set about recruiting scholars
from several disciplines to participate in a workshop to help defi ne and
articulate the agenda for the history and philosophy of systematics at
the IISE as well as in my own work. Topics of discussion in the work-
shop ranged from instrumentalism in contemporary systematics to the
relationships between homology and monophyly, Willi Hennig’s theo-
retical commitments, and on to how the history of recent and highly
contested biology should be most productively pursued.
No attempt has been made to reproduce the breadth of the workshop
discussions here. Rather, I have narrowed the scope considerably by
1
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