Toward a phylogenetic system of biological nomenclature

K de Queiroz; J Gauthier

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(94)90231-3

Toward a phylogenetic system of biological nomenclature

Trends Ecol Evol. 1994 Jan;9(1):27-31. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(94)90231-3.

Authors

K de Queiroz¹, J Gauthier

Affiliation

¹ Kevin de Queiroz is at the Dept of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.

PMID: 21236760
DOI: 10.1016/0169-5347(94)90231-3

Abstract

Despite the widely held belief that modem biological taxonomy is evolutionary, some of the most fundamental concepts and principles in the current system of biological nomenclature are based on a nonevolutionary convention that pre-dates widespread acceptance of an evolutionary world view by more than a century. The development of a phylogenetic system of nomenclature requires reformulating these concepts and principles so that they are no longer based on the Linnean categories but on the tenet of common descent.