Yeah, because we have more than two parties, so a simple majority isn't automatically an absolute one. But if you group the far right with the increasingly far right "conservatives", it looks much more bleak.
Fair enough. I just belong to the people who require a valid taxon to be monophyletic. (Btw., "clade" already implies monophyleti...city? Monophyleticness?)
Also, shut up about viruses, they make a mess of everything and are beautifully chaotic and I hate them and I love them. xD
What I'm getting at is taxonomy. A valid taxon has to include all descendents of the crown group. That means that for monkeys to constitute a valid taxon, apes must be included. Same reason why birds are technically dinosaurs.
In taxonomy (the system of biological classification), monkeys (Simiiformes) are an infraorder of the order of primates (Primates). Apes (Hominoidea) in turn are a superfamily within the Simiiformes. It's an "every thumb is a finger, but not every finger is a thumb" situation.
What.