Re: What is a dinosaur?

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-01-11 12:56:49 EST, nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu (King, Norm)
writes:

>Yes, but show an average person a stegosaur, and she will have no idea 
>whether it was descended from the common ancestor of _Megalosaurus_ and 
>_Iguanodon_.
>
>

I detect in this response a certain yearning for a return to the typological
classification systems, and I truly sympathize. But you wanted the
_definition_ of a dinosaur, rather than a set of characters that would
distinguish a dinosaur from other closely related "saurians." That would have
been a _diagnosis_.