Mysticete and odontocete origins: more characters or more taxa?
I recently received an email response
from a worker regarding whale origins. That person wrote: “I am aware of your work and the differences between the phylogenies you support and those that I have published. In the end I suspect the differences between our trees is that you prioritize the adding of taxa (and specifically trying to span a broad phylogenetic range with a single matrix) whereas I prioritize adding characters (although I have also greatly increased the number of taxa over the years, although I focus on taxa that are most likely within the clade I am investigating).
“Ideally, we would do both, but time is limited, and it gets progressively harder to code characters consistently as the morphology diverges from the study group (i.e. as you code less related and morphologically different taxa).”
I am confident in my approach, particularly given that I have less time for research these days.”
“Of course, genetic and now genomic data allows people to do both (add a lot of taxa and characters), but at least for morphology, we are still very constrained by the number of hours in a day. In any case ,I am sure you are aware of these tradeoffs, but I do think my approach is shared by most paleontologists and morphologists, and is probably the main reason your trees have not been adopted by those who frequently publish.”
Just thought you should know
1. How academics are thinking about this problem and its solution(s). And
2. This is how to engage with fellow workers: with kindness, as in a polite dinner conversation.
Here is one paragraph from my response to this reply.
“Logic states you’ll never be able to find separate origins = other outgroup taxa for mysticetes and odontocetes without adding taxa traditionally omitted from analyses. If taxa are not included, they won’t be tested. Adding traits, by definition, can never do so.”
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/mysticete-and-odontocete-origins-more-characters-or-more-taxa/
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