Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26184563-20130421015649/@comment-995426-20160429221351

Yes, and we have just desconstructed paraphyly quite nicely when it comes to humans and fish. Genetically, humans are just another member of the grand clade of fish. Familiarly, they are not fish, because "fish" in relative English-speaking human terms is a paraphyletic grouping that excludes many of its own genetic descendants. Funny how all that works. XD And funnily, as humans, the meanings of our words change over time&mdash;until a century or two ago, "fish" used to refer to any swimming creature, and could also refer to whales, tadpoles, octopuses, lobsters, sea cucumbers, etc., which is why we have such artifact terms like "shellfish" and "starfish." We changed "fish" to mean only a certain genetic grouping of aquatic vertebrates as we enhanced our understanding of biology. Humans are just very reluctant to count themselves among any distinction of "animal" whatsoever, because it muddles something we see as making us unique in the universe.