720
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

But even with more modern methods like cladistics and genetic analysis, birds are still found to be directly descended from contemporary dinosaurs.

[-] DroneRights@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago

And the taxonomic rule that any animal is also all of its ancestors is garbage science.

[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That's not "science," that's just an arbitrary convention that can help simplify communication of complex toppics. The genetic data that the convention is derived from is the science, in the form of a lineage of genetic relations between organisms and nothing else, because biology has exactly zero built-in categories or labels, and those are all human-made.

[-] DroneRights@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago

Exactly, it's not science. And it's not helpful either. It doesn't simplify communication. The representative conventions of taxonomy are not derived from evidence, they're derived from the irrelevant feelings of taxonomists hundreds of years ago who didn't understand how the world works. It's pseudoscience. Pointless tradition masquerading as a legitimate exploratory endeavour.

this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
720 points (97.1% liked)

Science Memes

10940 readers
1893 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS