Proposal of a new system of nomenclature for phylogenetic systematics

Abstract

After a brief study of the main concepts of the intuitive set theory, formal definitions of taxon, morphospecies and eidophoront are given. Follows a critical study of the creation of the Linnaean categories and why they cannot be maintained, and of the three different meanings of «genos» in evolutionary taxonomy (C-genos, P-genos and inf (P-genos)). Then, a new system of nomenclature is proposed for phylogenetic systematics, in which, without ever creating new names, all the species and all the proper subsets of a phylogenetic system are named. As the nomenclatural system becomes isomorphic with the phylogenetic system, the classification retrieves all the phylogenetic information, in the same order. The new system is based on the principle of absolute priority of names and, analogously, on Hennig's theory of phylogenetic systematics. Two taxa A and B are distinct if they possess nominal heterobathmy, i.e., if A possesses an autaponomastic and B possesses another; monophyly of A and B is indicated by the possession of a synaponomastic, which is formed by taking the name which has priority, adding a negative index: the synaponomastic of A and B will be automatically the autaponomastic of the immediate ancestral species of A and B. The process goes on until the species ancestral to the entire group is named. Many other conventions are established for the use of the system, including cases of species fusion, hybrids, polypatrid species, fossil species, subgenera. The last section deals with the stability of nomenclature, showing that this new method insures that desideratum.