Category Archives: Systematics
Notes on Novelty 4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell
Notes on Novelty series: 1. Introduction 2. Historical considerations – before and after evolution 3: The meaning of evolutionary novelty 4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell 5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation 6: Levels of description 7: Surprise! 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo … Continue reading
Filed under Evolution, Natural Classification, Philosophy, Science, Species and systematics, Systematics
Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 1: Introduction
Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power This is an extended meditation upon the recent film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). There may be spoilers (first and … Continue reading
The taxonomy of disease
A letter in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery has argued that it is time to reform the taxonomy of disease. The authors are Ismail Kola, head of a pharmaceutics company, and Sir John Bell, Regius Professor at Oxford. The taxonomy of … Continue reading
Filed under Biology, General Science, Natural Classification, Systematics
Counting species
Suppose a scholar of toys wanted to count the number of kinds of toys in the world. Since this information is not generally recorded, the scholar might look at the ways toys are used, the sales figures, or the designs … Continue reading
More on phenomena
Semifinalist for the 3 Quarks Daily Philosophy Prize 2011 In my last post, I asked whether there was a foundation for my view that species are extra-theoretical phenomena. I have done some further reading, especially Michela Massimi’s book Kant and … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Science, Species and systematics, Species concept, Systematics
More on why Brian Blessed is a monkey
If this worked, you should see a rather nice, if occasionally naughty language using, discussion of the point I made I little while ago why we should redefine terms like “monkey” to include humans. Sorry John Hawks…
Filed under Evolution, Natural Classification, Species and systematics, Systematics
Is Brian Blessed a monkey or an ape?
One of the recurring creationist attacks on evolution is, “If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” I responded to this once before but it is time to revisit it. Why? Because Marty Robbins has attacked the British … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Epistemology, Evolution, Natural Classification, Philosophy, Systematics
Systematists have a strange sense of humour
Some funny new names seen recently: Aussiedraco, a new pteranodontoid pterosaur genus from Australia [1]. Pronounced “ozzydrayco”, one can only hope someone finds a new species and calls it oioioi. Pantydraco [2] – It’s behind you! Pinkfloydia, a new genus … Continue reading
Filed under Humor, Systematics
