Abstract
In two recent papers Mooi & Gill (2010a, 2010b) stressed that the evaluation and discussion of character homologies and their significance as synapomorphies has disappeared from current molecular phylogenetic analyses in ichthyology (see Chakrabarty (2010) and Smith (2010) for a different perspective). Synapomorphies represent the evidence that allows us to postulate phylogenetic groupings under the paradigm of Hennig’s (1950, 1966) phylogenetic systematics. Therefore, their absence would indeed indicate an absence of evidence and hence a reason for serious concern. In the following paragraphs we provide a brief review of the differences between morphological and molecular approaches in relation to the establishment of homology.
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