Phylogenetic Reticulations and Cladistics: Discussion of Methodological Concepts

Abstract

Abstract Abstract—Some problems associated with a cladistic treatment of complex taxa (hybrids and holobionts) are reviewed and discussed. The authors recommend aplication of standard cladistic analysis to all taxa, regardless of their supposed mode of origin. The position of a complex taxon depends entirely on the set of characters it shares with other taxa. This approach is preferable, because there are no means to distinguish deductively between various kinds of character conflicts (the recognition of one character as incongruous with others says nothing about its evolutionary origin). All other approaches have been proposed so as to reflect the topology of reticulate phylogenetic trees, but, at the same time, they require prior knowledge of the complex nature of a taxon.