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APPLICATION OF AN INFORMATION THEORY MODEL FOR CHARACTER ANALYSIS IN THE GENUS ARCEUTHOBIUM (VISCACEAE)
Author(s) -
Hawksworth Frank G.,
Estabrook George F.,
Rogers David J.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1218001
Subject(s) - character (mathematics) , genus , weighting , biology , mathematics , zoology , geometry , medicine , radiology
Summary A character for a group under study embodies the notion of “similar with respect to a basis for comparison” by inducing a partition of the group into classes called character states. Objects which are members of the same state are considered similar. The information in a character can be measured. This enables us to determine that Some characters share information with other characters. Some properties may be predicted from knowledge of other properties. Conventional notions of character “equality” and “weighting” are often misleading. In a very real sense, a classification is a character and may be measured for its information preserving capacity. The information in selected characters of the genus Arceuthobium was analysed in this manner; the results of this analysis are presented.