
On Being a Fish - smadge
http://inference-review.com/article/on-being-a-fish
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GuiA
_> The tree of life is almost entirely composed of binary branchings. The
occasional, strange exceptions are fascinating, but rare enough that they need
not concern us here._

What are they?

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FreeFull
I'm guessing they're probably referring to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer)

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jimmywanger
You also can't come to a good definition of the word "species".

We like to categorize things. Sometimes arbitrarily. What's wrong with that?

I don't see the point of this article.

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smadge
Well, the choice is between an arbitrary category with a complex definition
that doesn't provide any insight to its evolution history, to one that is
strictly defined by nature itself and provides lots of evolutionary insight.
Generally speaking you should prefer things that assume less and explain more.

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jimmywanger
No, there are many choices, each with subtle distinctions. What's your
definition?

Nature does not strictly define species, and how does it provide evolutionary
insight exactly?

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smadge
There's a misunderstanding. I agree that there is no good definition of
species. However, there is a good definition of clade, taxon, or monophyletic
group. The author is suggesting that paraphyletic and polyphyletic taxonomical
groups that are based on biases, intuition, or morphological similarities. We
should distinguish between groups based on traits and groups based
evolutionary history, and not conflate the two.

