Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA20899 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 14 Dec 2001 09:21:43 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.132] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: lineage Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 04:16:58 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F74h2jXi2QdUeGrIsqs00002e76@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Dec 2001 09:16:58.0973 (UTC) FILETIME=[153798D0:01C18480] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I may have gotten too anal about the use of lineage in a phylogenetic
context. I was focusing on evolution as a *branching* process and I usually
avoid thinking of linearity, but in some sense there's linear relations
nonetheless. Both evolutionary biology texts I looked at use the term.
Minkoff's _Evolutionary Biology_ defines lineage as: "(a) linear succession
of species arranged in a sequence from ancestor to descendant" where
Futuyma's _Evolutionary Biology_ defines it as "(a) series of ancestral and
descendant populations, through time; usually refers to a single evolving
species, but may include several species descended from a common ancestor".
My main beef would probably be, if I remember Gould's _Full House_ aright,
with a singular focus on one pathway as *the* lineage, such as if one traced
microbe to man and ignored the rest, which gives us that favored axis
treatment which IIRC corresponds to Teilhard's emphasis. There may be lines,
but they do lots of splitting (cladogenesis).
If the relation in sexual species between parents and child is a T (I said Y
before), can this result in a lineage applied at this lower level?
When abstracted to populations and considering ancestral/descendant
relations the lineage term begrudgingly applies, though I wince at applying
something with linear connotations to a branching process like evolution
because historic linear and serial confusions there have been which grossly
misrepresent evolution.
I've probably made tons of goofs, but this will give Wilkins practice for
his orals.
Refs:
Futuyma DJ. 1998. Evolutionary Biology. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland,
Massachusetts
Minkoff EC. 1984. Evolutionary Biology. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Reading, Massachusetts
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