Re: Dinofest Report #2 (and final)

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> Nah, if I'd wanted to give that impression I'd have said "it's cladistics, 
> it's not
> supposed to make sense."  At the moment, as far as I can tell what I said is
> entirely correct: you and other hardcore cladists don't care if what you do 
> makes
> any rational sense.  Claiming that characteristics don't matter when defining 
> taxa
> is prima facie irrational

    The rationalization for keeping the original taxon name
"Arctometatarsalia" is no different then for prioritizing at the genus and
species level.  Would you propose going back and changing all the genus
and species names ever assigned so that they apply perfectly to the
specimen they describe?  _Apatosaurus_ may or may not be a nicer name then
_Brontosaurus_, but it has priority for that species.  _Hyracotherium_ may
not have the elegance and accuracy of _Eohippus_, but that is beside the
point.  Similarly, Arctometatarsalia has the ornithomimids as the charter
members, and stands as a valid taxon even if it turns out a different name
might have been nicer, and applied only ot members of the taxon.  

LN Jeff