Systematics, defined here as the study of the evolutionary history of life, plays a vital role in biology. Together with studies of evolutionary mechanisms, it gives special meaning to biology; it is the unifying force in biology. As a result of recent developments in techniques useful to systematics and in philosophical approaches to systematics, it will be possible for vertebrate systematics to make major advances. Comparative morphological studies of extant and extinct species will play the dominant role in our understanding of the overall pattern of vertebrate phylogeny. For extant species, data from immunological, electrophoretic, and amino acid sequence studies will be important, but the major advances will come from studies of mitochondrial DNA and DNA–DNA hybridization. Examples of phylogenetic controversies that should be resolved in the next 25 years concern the following: the ancestral group of jawed vertebrates, the relationships of Latimeria, the ancestral group of tetrapods, the interrelationships of birds and mammals to each other, and the closest living relatives of man. Both cladistic and synthetic classifications will survive; each serves a useful purpose in translating phylogenetic ideas. Systematics, together with evolution, is a fundamental aspect of biology and should be included in the undergraduate program of all biology students; all biology departments should have a research program in systematics involving graduate students and staff. In addition, museums are a vital part of biology departments, in both their teaching and research functions, and their existence within universities must be nourished.
Are class III alcohol dehydrogenases the ancestral group inside the medium‐chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamily?
