The genus name Synedra should now be used only for a group of marine species previously included in Catacombas, the latter name becoming a junior synonym. From a purely nomenclatural point of view, as numerous names remain in Synedra when they clearly do not belong there, a problem exists in how to treat those names. Two suggestions are made. One might explore existing names and their associated data; or one may treat the matter as a scientific problem, the problem of taxon relationships at various levels in the taxonomic hierarchy (genus, family, order, etc.), and explore the issue via systematic treatment of groups of species from the point of view of their monophyly. Monophyletic classifications at all ranks and supported by evidence (characters) allows a more scientific approach to understanding the relationships among various groups of species. |
