Cladistic analyses will be inaccurate if based on inaccurate data. Most blastozoan taxa were defined before cladistics was proposed. Redescription of precladistic taxa should be a priority. Cladistics recognizes similarities between taxa, not differences. Differences always exist, so the two approaches are asymmetrical. Any suggested similarity or homology needs testing, including output of computer-based analyses. New interpretations of plate homology between glyptocystitoid and hemicosmitoid rhombiferans had already rendered input data obsolete before the pan-dichoporite paper was published. Universal Elemental Homology (UEH) is not a scientific hypothesis. It makes no testable predictions; no system of naming plates can.

Christopher R.C. Paul [glcrcp@bristol.ac.uk], School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Bristol BS8 1RL, UK.