A proposal (Re: Dinofest Report #2 (and final))

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 09:30 AM 4/27/98 -0600, LN Jeff wrote:
>
>> 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.  

Well put.

Incidentally, I don't think we need go any further with this.  We have
debated, ad nauseum, the characteristics of phylogenetic taxonomy not five
months ago.  Anybody who really cares can go back and check the archives.
This all began from a misunderstanding as to what Dr. Sues said at the
conference.  This need not be an excuse to get into another long digression
on taxonomic conventions.  Do we really need to waste bandwidth with it again?

True, there aren't any other rabid debates going on the list at the moment,
but I for one think that that is a GOOD thing...

Dinosaurs, anyone?

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661