ABSTRACT

In making the transition to fully rankless classification, it is important to ensure that the community can still do everything it is used to doing with species, both practically and theoretically. This chapter explores theoretical and practical implications of a rankless phylogenetic approach to terminal taxa and makes the argument that is it not only possible to use rankless classification across biology, but better. Implications are discussed for academic studies of ecology, speciation, evolution, biogeography, and conservation biology. In all these cases the new approach being advocated is to build a phylogeny down to the finest scale that is feasible, and then use all the branches in the tree (including the reconstructed changes in traits along them) to address process questions, in contrast to the old approach of just considering species and their traits. For practical uses of classification in teaching about, identifying, inventorying, and conserving biodiversity, we should transition to a rankless phylogenetic view of classification which may be challenging at first, but presenting the truth about nature as we know it is the best policy for scientists communicating with the public in the long run.