> Molecular work CAN give useful results, but the trick is to use the
> right sequences; for instance, if the one you pick contains the
> chirality gene, they you can guarantee bad results which will give
> the idea that all sinistral specimens (of whatever species or genus)
> are genetically distinct from all dextral specimens and therefore
> deserve a different specific name (selffulfilling and erroneous).
>

There's also the problem of deciding what the cutoff is.  In general,
Rob Dillon puts the cutoff higher than most other people, i.e. he's
towards the lumper end of things.  Of course, some taxa ought to be
lumped and some ought to be split-that doesn't say that the Wise et al
paper is wrong, just that it is unlikely to oversplit.

Another problem is that genes can occasionally do strange
things-sampling a population is desirable, though it costs more and
may be problematic with rare species.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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