New propositions are made in order to implement the cladotypic taxonomic system. The term ‘taxon’ designates metapopulation lineages that evolved from a unique metapopulation lineage. In other words, a taxon is composed of a species that experienced a cladogenesis event, and all its descendants. A new formulation for the defi nition of particular taxa is proposed: a taxon is a species that evol...

Appropriate and extensive taxon sampling is one of the most important determinants of accurate phylogenetic estimation. In addition, accuracy of inferences about evolutionary processes obtained from phylogenetic analyses is improved significantly by thorough taxon sampling efforts. Much of the previous work examining the impact of taxon sampling on phylogenetic accuracy has focused on the effec...

The constant accumulation of sequence data poses new computational and methodological challenges for phylogenetic inference, since multiple sequence alignments grow both in the horizontal (number of base pairs, phylogenomic alignments) as well as vertical (number of taxa) dimension. Put aside the ongoing controversial discussion about appropriate models, partitioning schemes, and assembly metho...

Despite several recent studies, the phylogeny of plethodontid salamanders is not yet fully resolved and the phylogenetic positions of several key genera, especially Aneides, Hemidactylium, Hydromantes and Karsenia, are contentious. Here we present a combined dataset of complete mitochondrial genomes and three nuclear loci for 20 species (16 genera) of plethodontids, representing all major clade...

The Taxon-Task-Taxon method (Anno et al., 1996) is a statistical modeling approach to predict performance decrements in response to various stressors. Our research is extending this approach to accommodate new more acute stressors associated with chemical protective gear, and new tasks with greater involvement of cognitive, perceptual, and motor function. In this paper, we describe the basics o...

High cross-taxon congruence in species diversity patterns is essential for the use of surrogate taxa in biodiversity conservation, but presence and strength of congruence in species turnover patterns, and the relative contributions of abiotic environmental factors and biotic interaction towards this congruence, remain poorly understood. In our study, we used variation partitioning in multiple r...

Introns comprise a considerable portion of eukaryotic genomes; however, their evolution is understudied. Numerous works of the last years largely disagree on many aspects of intron evolution. Interpretation of these differences is hindered because different algorithms and taxon sampling strategies were used. Here, we present the first attempt of a systematic evaluation of the effects of taxon s...

Taxon cycles are sequential phases of expansion and contraction of the ranges of species, associated generally with shifts in ecological distribution. The important contribution of the taxon cycle to biogeographical analysis is its emphasis on evolutionary and ecological interactions among colonizing and resident species, which influence their extinction dynamics and establish patterns of geogr...

In reviewing of Poaceae family specimens in "IRAN" Herbarium, Urochloa panicoides belonging to Paniceae tribe and Eragrostis cilianensis (All.) Vign.-Lut. ex Janchen subsp. starosselskyi (Grossh.) Tzvelev to Eragrostideae tribe are reported as new to Iran. The first taxon is a corn field weed in Fars province and the second is rare plant from W. Azerbaijan province.