Anyway, about parsimony; I know parsimony analysis is used a lot in
restriction fragment length analysis. The results are used to draw
caladograms (trees) showing evolutionary relationships.
But how can we assume evolution is parsimonious? Can a person walking
toward an unknown destination be expected to take the shortest possible
path? I suppose that because restriction fragment length polymorphism is
being observed in a non-coding region of the chloroplast genome, it is
justified since mutations are neither detrimental or benificial?
But is it not dangerous to assume that organismal evolution will be
parsimonious (especially across large evolutionary distances?)
-Michael