How characters recoding, characters rescoring, and matrix combination weaken phylogenetic and taxonomic inference: the case of Scythicorhinus
Abstract
Kovalchuk et al. [1] propose a new genus, Scythicorhinus, for the Kvabebi rhinoceros and treat the previous assignment of the same material to Pliorhinus miguelcrusafonti by Pandolfi et al. [2] as a “misidentification”. We think that this new interpretation is not supported by the numerical and empirical structure of their analysis. The result is based on a large but extensively modified matrix, on substantial missing data in key terminals, limited documentation of direct observation across the comparative sample, and statistical comparisons that broadly rely on rescored character states. The points below show that the analysis does not invalidate the Pandolfi et al.’s interpretation and does not provide a secure basis either for erecting Scythicorhinus as a distinct genus. The analysis of Kovalchuk et al. is presented as a broad, statistically-supported reassessment of the Kvabebi rhinoceros, but its empirical basis requires caution.
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BibTeX
@misc{pandolfi2026characters,
title = {{How characters recoding, characters rescoring, and matrix combination weaken phylogenetic and taxonomic inference: the case of Scythicorhinus}},
author = {LUCA PANDOLFI and Damien Becker and Jérémy Tissier and Tao Deng and Pierre-Olivier Antoine},
howpublished = {PaleorXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31233/osf.io/wgr92_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/paleorxiv/wgr92_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - How characters recoding, characters rescoring, and matrix combination weaken phylogenetic and taxonomic inference: the case of Scythicorhinus
AU - LUCA PANDOLFI
AU - Damien Becker
AU - Jérémy Tissier
AU - Tao Deng
AU - Pierre-Olivier Antoine
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - PaleorXiv
DO - 10.31233/osf.io/wgr92_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/paleorxiv/wgr92_v1/
AB - Kovalchuk et al. [1] propose a new genus, Scythicorhinus, for the Kvabebi rhinoceros and treat the previous assignment of the same material to Pliorhinus miguelcrusafonti by Pandolfi et al. [2] as a “misidentification”. We think that this new interpretation is not supported by the numerical and empirical structure of their analysis. The result is based on a large but extensively modified matrix, on substantial missing data in key terminals, limited documentation of direct observation across the comparative sample, and statistical comparisons that broadly rely on rescored character states. The points below show that the analysis does not invalidate the Pandolfi et al.’s interpretation and does not provide a secure basis either for erecting Scythicorhinus as a distinct genus. The analysis of Kovalchuk et al. is presented as a broad, statistically-supported reassessment of the Kvabebi rhinoceros, but its empirical basis requires caution.
ER -