title: The practice of classification and the theory of evolution, and what the demise of Charles Darwin's tree of life hypothesis means for both of them.
abstract: Debates over the status of the tree of life (TOL) often proceed without agreement as to what it is supposed to be: a hierarchical classification scheme, a tracing of genomic and organismal history or a hypothesis about evolutionary processes and the patterns they can generate. I will argue that for Darwin it was a hypothesis, which lateral gene transfer in prokaryotes now shows to be false. I will propose a more general and relaxed evolutionary theory and point out why anti-evolutionists should take no comfort from disproof of the TOL hypothesis.
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. ford@dal.ca
authors: W Ford
authors: WF
authors: Doolittle
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods*; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000235:genetics*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010802:Phylogeny