[Return of the prodigal bandwagon: what molecular phylogenies and databasing can bring to compared anatomy (the example of teleosts)].
Molecular and morphological aspects are traditionally opposed in life sciences. Systematics, however, has long used molecular tools for evolutionary purposes and might be the place to unify those two elements of biology, even though up until recently, such methodologies were incompatible and opposed. Morphological studies suffer from a lesser recognition and a largely inferior access to credits and renewal of personnel, because of the length of time and level of specialization required to produce morpho-anatomy based work. Databasing might be a way to simplify and speed up morphological studies. The use of databases is spreading in systematics, from bibliography to collection catalogs and localisation, to sequence banks. The example of Acanthomorpha examplifies this with the construction of a database gathering bibliographical and anatomical data so as to avoid repeating previous work. Molecular phylogenies cannot be explored alone; they need to be compared with morphological analyses.
Dettai
Agnès
A
UMR 7138 CNRS Systématique, Adaptation, Evolution, Département Systématique et Evolution, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 43, rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris. adettai@mnhn.fr
Lancelot
Gaël
G
D000818:Animals; D001695:Biology / Q000639:trends; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005399:Fishes / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny