RE: [Fwd: Dinosaur Society]

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

Knowing THEM - yes: most likely. :-)  They have 2 adults, a male & a female.
They ARE impressive animals to be sure; even in our circa 1930's zoo!  We
saw them ~ a month ago & it was 104 F that day and (with the Southern Texas
humidity) it was something like a Turkish bath.
Both specimens were outside & near their "pond", so they weren't obscured by
the plants in their habitat.  We happened to be there right at feeding time
& it was an "interesting" spectacle. 
They're a fairly new exhibit (our zoo sort of specializes in big cats), so
there was a large crowd of visitors present that day.  Almost inevitably,
someone said; "Gee, they look just like dinosaurs!" :-)  My wife shot me a
quick "Don't say a word!" glance, so I remained mute.  But, from the front
of the crowd, this (perhaps) eight year old girl explained; "Their
resemblance to dinosaurs is only slight.  Actually,  modern lizards are not
much like dinosaurs."  I chuckled to myself, as this rather red-faced older
guy walked off mumbling! :-)  I assume he was the fellow who made the
original remark.

  Actually, the earlier point about dogma being a reasonable description, if
taken literally (as defined by Webster) is true.  But, like the term dogma
has acquired a pretty negative connotation.  Anyway, my point was that it
certainly appears that the dinosaur/bird link is gaining in acceptance. 

 Speaking of birds & dinosaurs, I have a question for the list:  am I
correct in assuming that (ironically) the order Saurischia is closer to
birds that the Ornithischia?  I'm sure this has probably been addressed
before, sorry. 

Dwight

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Peter Von Sholly [SMTP:vonrex@gte.net]
        Sent:   Thursday, August 27, 1998 9:11 PM
        To:     jwoolf@erinet.com; Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com
        Cc:     'andreww@farallon.com'; Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com;
dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        Re: [Fwd: Dinosaur Society]

        Yeah. but that's not what they mean, I bet.  They're trying to palm
those
        guys off as "still-surviving dinosaurs", don't you think?

        ----------
        > From: Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>
        > To: Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com
        > Cc: 'andreww@farallon.com'; Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com
<big_ed@pacbell.net>;
        dinosaur@usc.edu
        > Subject: Re: [Fwd: Dinosaur Society]
        > Date: Thursday, August 27, 1998 6:51 PM
        > 
        > Stewart, Dwight wrote:
        > 
        > > 2)      Our local zoo, EVER THE PROMOTERS, have been advertising
their
        two
        > > Kommodo Dragons (sp?) as "dinosaur survivors".    I'm just anal
        retentive
        > > enough for this to rub me slightly wrong.
        > 
        > Drop one of the M's, and it'll be right.  As for the wrong-way
rub, I
        react the
        > same way, but I rationalize it thusly: I dunno how old the genus
        _Varanus_ is,
        > but certainly the varanid lizards have been around since the
Mesozoic. 
        So the
        > Komodo dragon lizard's ancestors did survive the K-T extinction,
where
        dinosaurs
        > didn't.
        > 
        > -- Jon W.