or whatever.
One of the most visually striking strips I’ve seen in a while.
I guess Randall doesn’t realize that mammals are a class of fish.
I must admit I’m not familiar with that classification system.
Sharks (or Chondrichthyes) and fish (or Osteichthyes) are the major clades of vertebrate life. Mammals are in the latter.
Randall’s statement of “fish or shark, but actually mammal” is analogous to “bird or bat, but actually penguin”.
I assumed it was analogous to how whales were once thought of as fish. Well, at least in Moby Dick they were.
I quite like the drawing. I wonder if he’ll offer prints.
The classification system I’ve seen (including your link) puts Osteichthyes and mammals as separate classes. I haven’t seen something that puts mammals as a member of the Osteichthyes class.
Using the term “fish” in cladistics is problematic, since either pretty much everything is a fish or nothing is from a cladist point of view.
And while it’s obviously possible to name a clade that contains both mammals and “fish”, it isn’t really meaningful or pertinent to space shuttle skeletons.
Originally thought to be Montague or Capulet, butt eventually found to be descended from Mercutio
That being said, it’s common for non-scientists (and scientists not speaking of taxonomy) to use “fish” to mean “vertebrates that live in water”
…unless they have nipples.
Second paragraph of wiki page:
Osteichthyes can be compared to Euteleostomi. In paleontology the terms are synonymous. In ichthyology the difference is that Euteleostomi presents a cladistic view which includes the terrestrial tetrapods that evolved from lobe-finned fish. Until recently, the view of most ichthyologists has been that Osteichthyes were paraphyletic and include only fishes.[4] However, since 2013 widely cited ichthyology papers have been published with phylogenetic trees that treat the Osteichthyes as a clade including tetrapods.[5][6][7][4]
Emphasis added. See also the phylogenic tree:
That is acceptable, but xkcd is making the distinction between fish and sharks, which indicates a phylogenic context.
True.
I just enjoyed the Stellar Sea Cow pun.
Me two.
But most scientists have nipples.
Batman’s a scientist. And…yup, story checks out.
Ah, only on the SDMB can a conversation drift naturally from the Space Shuttle to Batman’s nipples.
Band name? I’m not sure of the genre.
Hot take:
Don’t understand this one, but it’s been many years since I complained about how hard exercise was.