Re: The Sciences Magazine and Paedomorphosis

[chris brochu <cbrochu@fmppr.fmnh.org>]

>    Another thing (sorry have to get it of my chest) that I find very
>disturbing is that 1 of these anti-dino-bird people's biggest arguments
>is that "Well, paleontologists may know dinosaurs but they don't know
>anything
>about birds." What up with that?

That's nonsense.  Kevin Padian makes this very clear in his review of
Feduccia's book - one of the major proponents of the birds-as-dinosaurs
school of thought (Luis Chiappe) is now a curator in the Department of
*Ornithology* at the AMNH, and Larry Martin - a partisan on the other side
- is a paleontologist, not an ornithologist.  I also asked one of the
ornithologists here about current ornithological thought, and by and large
the ornithological community accepts the results of multiple parsimony
analyses - that birds are derived theropods.

Moreover, the earliest phylogenetic analysis to include birds within
Dinosauria - that of Gauthier - included living bird taxa as well as
fossils.


chris


-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Christopher Brochu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Department of Geology
Field Museum of Natural History
Lake Shore Drive at Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL  60605  USA

phone:  312-922-9410, ext. 469
fax:  312-922-9566

cbrochu@fmppr.fmnh.org