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Dolphins is whales. (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you go back far enough, whales are a type of fish, just like us humans

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Either that or fish aren't a phylogenetic group. You decide

[–] Viking_Hippie 7 points 3 months ago

Have I got a podcast for you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You can't evolve out of a clade, or so they say.

Of course it's not helpful to call humans and whales fishes in common parlance. But in phylogenetics, why not?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because that would make fish and vertebrates synonyms so why not drop the former altogether?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Words can mean more than one thing thought, and depending on the context it can be useful to convey the fact that the vertebrates all evolved from fish-like ancestors, or that whales are more closely related to some fish than those fish are related to other fish.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

And it's totally valid to use it that way even though I wouldn't. That's the "You decide" part of my first comment