Blogging runs in families
Families of closely related topics that is. Morgan D. Jackson set out to reconstruct the phylogeny of insect blogs:
You will think that a blog with the name of Archetype would be very close to the root of the tree, if not being the root itself. Oh well, this blog seems to be well nested in a clade “higher up”. But look at the bright side, Archetype’s sister blog is excellent and the one that lead me into blogging in the first place.
5 Comments to Blogging runs in families
At least you’re not a primitive ant blogger like me.
April 22, 2010
Thank GOD he used standard cladistics, and not some silly ad hoc algorithm like maximum likelyhood.
You are not primitive Alex, just basal… or was it ancestral? Oh nvm then.
Kai, I’m not sure I agree. Maybe using statistical-based methods can show that the branch leading to Myrmecos is a really long one.
April 22, 2010
Question: What does “really long branch” even mean, and how can it be empirically tested?
Silly pheneticists…systematics is for parsimony!
I’m just stopping by (quite by accident; I was doing a google search on “archetypes” for a segment of a myth class) because the coincidence is too good to ignore. I was listening to E. O. Wilson on Diane Rehm yesterday, reinvigorating my respect for ants, and then this morning happened on your very interesting and quite enlightening blog. I’ll be back (that’s not a threat) when I’ve got more time to enjoy it.


April 22, 2010