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FEATURES OBSERVED BY ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AS GENERIC CRITERIA
Author(s) -
Lane Meredith A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1221562
Subject(s) - taxon , character (mathematics) , rank (graph theory) , context (archaeology) , resolution (logic) , taxonomy (biology) , biology , macro , evolutionary biology , zoology , computer science , paleontology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , combinatorics , geometry , programming language
Summary The advantages of greater resolution and depth of field provided by the scanning electron versus the light microscope have led to both a re‐evaluation of the usual microcharacters and discovery of novel ones not easily observed by other means. Comparative studies of SEM‐level characters in taxa of Compositae have shown that they are taxonomically useful, but that they are neither more nor less valuable as a means of generic delimitation than are macro‐ or micromorphological ones. As is true of taxonomic data from any source, it is the consistent occurrence of one or more SEM‐observed features as a part of a suite of correlated characters that provides sufficient information on which to base systematic decisions. Within this context, it is the newly discovered characters that prove most useful: the chance of finding correlated character suites rises with the number of characters observed. However, because the extent of infraspecific variation in these features has not been thoroughly explored, they should be employed with caution and in conjunction with numerous others in making taxonomic decisions at the generic (or any other) rank.