Numerical classification applied to certain Jamaican eocene nummulitids

Eighty-eight specimens of Eocene nummulitids from the Yellow Limestone Formation of northwestern Jamaica are classified according to quantitative measurements of morphologic parameters that are generally considered to be taxonomically useful. The specimens are grouped into homogeneous classes by the computer screening of differently oriented data projections. By this method, the use of similarity coefficients and the question of a priori weighting of characters, for which numerical taxonomy has been heavily criticized, are both avoided. The stability of the classes thus obtained is validated by discriminant analysis. These techniques provide an objective view of phenetic differences among specimens and show how the measured characters produce those differences. Tightness of coiling and total number of whorls, prove to be the most useful features in discriminating between groups but seem to have taxonomic value only at the specific and not at the generic level. This suggests that the generaOperculinoides andNummulites are synonymous.