scav comments on Concepts Don't Work That Way - Less Wrong

57 Post author: lukeprog 28 September 2011 02:01AM

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Comment author: scav 28 September 2011 02:01:52PM *  3 points [-]

there is a reason dolphins aren't fish

It may not be a very good reason. To quote Wikipedia:

Because the term "fish" is defined negatively, and excludes the tetrapods (i.e., the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) which descend from within the same ancestry, it is paraphyletic, and is not considered a proper grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces (also ichthyes) is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification.

In other words, there are probably fish that are more distantly related to each other than one of them is to a dolphin (or you).