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Quadraped Sailbacks-All non-dinos?
I was recently talking to an Earth science high school teacher about
how he teaches his kids about what makes a dinosaur different from
other prehistoric animals. He told me that he uses "quadraped
sailbacks" (i.e. Dimetridon) as one discrimination as to what is _not_
a dinosaur. I told him that there were other (better) ways to
discriminate a dinosaur such as: (1) Lived only in the Mesozoic Era,
(2) Walked with legs directly under the body (not sprawled), (3) Lived
primarily on land, (4) Had unique anatomical structure (i.e. hips,
etc), and (5) All dinos were reptiles.
Although he uses some of the above, he still put in "Quad. Sailbacks".
Are there any quadraped sailback dinos? I think the five
qualifications above are enough to qualify for dinosaurian without the
confusion of "Quad. Sailbacks". What do you think? Thanks!
***************************************************************
Jim Cristea
Princeton, NJ
<cristeaj@pt.cyanamid.com>
These opinions are not American Cyanamid's
... They may not even be my own...
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