“A character does not make a genus, but the genus makes the character”: three-taxon statement analysis and intuitive taxonomy

• Main Authors: Evgeny Mavrodiev, Olga Yurtseva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consortium of European Natural History Museums 2017-12-01
• Series: European Journal of Taxonomy
• Subjects: three-taxon statement analysis; intuitive taxonomy; synapomorphy; diagnostic traits
• Online Access: http://www.europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/502

Three-taxon statement analysis (3TA) is a method that may help to formalize the taxonomical intuition of the synapomorphy of the clade as a combination of its diagnostic traits, even if each trait, if taken separately, may be found in one or many other taxa of the same relationship. Using example based on the real morphological data, we are showing that 3TA can recognize clade in case of the complete lack of it synapomorphies, as optimized under the criterion of standard parsimony.