The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics aims to make sense of the rise of phylogenetic systematics―its methods, its objects of study, and its theoretical foundations―with contributions from historians, philosophers, and biologists. This volume articulates an intellectual agenda for the study of systematics and taxonomy in a way that connects classification with larger historical themes in the biological sciences, including morphology, experimental and observational approaches, evolution, biogeography, debates over form and function, character transformation, development, and biodiversity. It aims to provide frameworks for answering the question: how did systematics become phylogenetic? "Phylogenetic Systematics has become a patchwork of attitudes, concepts, and methods, with regional traditions that can only be understood against the historical background of the impact of influential scientists. This book can help to escape intellectual endemisms, to remember what has already been discussed in the past, and to learn from errors that do not improve even when they are frequently repeated. . . . Recommend[ed] . . . to all students and reseachers interested in Phylogenetic Systematics." ― Systematic Biology " The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics succeeds in offering useful historical context for understanding the current state of systematics but also shows the consequences of the continued absence of a philosophically rigorous foundation with which to justify the variety of opinions regarding its operation—good fodder for the continued evolution of systematics." ― BioScience Andrew Hamilton is Associate Dean in the Honors College at the University of Houston. The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics By Andrew Hamilton UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Copyright © 2014 The Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-520-27658-1 Contents List of Contributors, vii, Introduction Andrew Hamilton, 1, PART ONE. HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS, 15, 1 Reflections on the History of Systematics Robert E. Kohler, 17, 2 Willi Hennig's Part in the History of Systematics Michael Schmitt, 47, 3 Homology as a Bridge between Evolutionary Morphology, Developmental Evolution, and Phylogenetic Systematics Manfred D. Laubichler, 63, PART TWO. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS, 87, 4 Historical and Conceptual Perspectives on Modern Systematics: Groups, Ranks, and the Phylogenetic Turn Andrew Hamilton, 89, 5 The Early Cladogenesis of Cladistics Olivier Rieppel, 117, 6 Cladistics at an Earlier Time Gareth Nelson, 139, 7 Patterson's Curse, Molecular Homology, and the Data Matrix David M. Williams and Malte C. Ebach, 151, 8 History and Theory in the Development of Phylogenetics in Botany Brent D. Mishler, 189, PART THREE. TECHNOLOGY, CONCEPTS, AND PRACTICE, 211, 9 Well-Structured Biology: Numerical Taxonomy's Epistemic Vision for Systematics Beckett Sterner, 213, 10 A Comparison of Alternative Form-Characterization: Approaches to the Automated Identification of Biological Species Norman MacLeod, 245, 11 The New Systematics, the New Taxonomy, and the Future of Biodiversity Studies Quentin Wheeler and Andrew Hamilton, 287, Index, 303, CHAPTER 1 Reflections on the History of Systematics ROBERT E. KOHLER Of all the life sciences, systematics is probably the one whose history is least studied. Its celebrity founders have been well historified: Linnaeus, whose universal system of binomial nomenclature still endures; Darwin, who gave classification a biological foundation; and a few others. But of the activities of the hundreds of collectors, curators, and classifiers who have found, preserved, named, and ordered the million-plus species whose world we share—of these our knowledge remains scattered and fragmentary. This is paradoxical, because of all the sciences systematics has the deepest living memory, thanks to rules of nomenclature that oblige those who would name a new species to actively engage the literature back to the Linnaean big bang. This situation is, happily, changing; substantial histories have been quietly accumulating, some by historians with a sustained devotion to the subject. These include Jim Endersby (2005, 2008), Paul Farber (1976, 1985), Jürgen Haffer (1992), Joel Hagen (1984, 1999), David Hull (1998), Gordon McOuat (1996, 2003), Ernst Mayr (1982, chaps. 4–6), Bruce Patterson (2000, 2001), Harriet Ritvo (1997), Peter Stevens (1986, 1994), Keith Vernon (1993), and Mary P. Winsor (1976). There are also circumstances external to biological systematics that may stimulate greater interest in taxonomy. One is the decided uptick of interest among historians of non–life sciences in classifying, both as practice and as a way of knowing. This is especially marked in the history of chemistry (Ursula Klein, Michael Gordin) and mineralogy (Matthew Eddy) and also in the history of ecology and generally in sciences that deal with collections of material objects, lik