What Do Ornithologists Think?

[Amado Narvaez <anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu>]

It's fascinating to follow the discussions here about the relationship of 
birds to other dinosaurs, but it suddenly occurs to me that the 
discussion has been driven from the perspective of paleontology -- 
looking from the past to the present. What do ornithologists think? They 
would be looking from the perspective of the present to the past. (I 
would ask this of an ornithology listserv, but I don't see any listed in 
my Internet Directory.)

Would 9 out of 10 professional ornithologists agree that, cladistically 
speaking, birds are dinosaurs? For that matter, would 9 out of 10 
biologists concur with that assessment? (I'm a little too cynical to 
think it would be 10 out of 10.)

If there _are_ professional ornithologists lurking on this list, I'd be 
very interested in your comments.

If anyone out there has contacts with a professional ornithologist, could 
you pass along this inquiry? I think it would be illuminating to get some 
comments from people outside our immediate discussion group.

----- Amado Narvaez
      anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu