Paul Monfils wrote,
"It is difficult for me to appreciate that in the overall scheme of nature,
a different process is involved in the production of new phyla or classes
than is involved in the production of new genera and families.  I thought
taxonomy viewed this as a continuum?"

Thank you, Paul, that bothered me too. It is indeed a continuum. I suspect
that someone got tenure on the basis of "discovering" the differences
between microevolution and macroevolution. Old wine in new bottles, to my
way of thinking; or at least old shells with new labels.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama