Reply to Bauer et al 2022

Abstract

Cladistic analyses will be inaccurate if based on inaccurate data. Most blastozoan taxa were defined before cladistics was proposed. Redescription of precladistic taxa should be a priority. Cladistics recognizes similarities between taxa, not differences. Differences always exist, so the two approaches are asymmetrical. Any suggested similarity or homology needs testing, including output of computer-based analyses. New interpretations of plate homology between glyptocystitoid and hemicosmitoid rhombiferans had already rendered input data obsolete before the pan-dichoporite paper was published. Universal Elemental Homology (UEH) is not a scientific hypothesis. It makes no testable predictions; no system of naming plates can.