Recycled

Both three-taxon analysis (3ta) and conventional parsimony analysis (CPA) f all within the cladistic frame-work. Attempts to exclude 3ta from the gener al cladistic framework so far seem to amount to declaring CPA as the only p ermissible analytic technique within cladistics. Critics of 3ta have failed to fully implement it in examples; as a result this criticism is faulty an d does not support the claims made. Ultimately, the relative merit of 3ta w ill be resolved empirically, by comparison of classifications produced from it with classifications using other methods. (C) 1998 The Willi Hennig Soc iety.