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[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 4 months ago

If you go back far enough, whales are a type of fish, just like us humans

[-] lugal@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 months ago

Either that or fish aren't a phylogenetic group. You decide

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Have I got a podcast for you!

[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago

You can't evolve out of a clade, or so they say.

Of course it's not helpful to call humans and whales fishes in common parlance. But in phylogenetics, why not?

[-] lugal@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Because that would make fish and vertebrates synonyms so why not drop the former altogether?

[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago

Words can mean more than one thing thought, and depending on the context it can be useful to convey the fact that the vertebrates all evolved from fish-like ancestors, or that whales are more closely related to some fish than those fish are related to other fish.

[-] lugal@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

And it's totally valid to use it that way even though I wouldn't. That's the "You decide" part of my first comment

this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
601 points (97.8% liked)

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