Re: Eggs,Embryos,and Birds

["John V Jackson" <jjackson@interalpha.co.uk>]

--Original Message-- From: Ralph W. Miller III <gbabcock@best.com>: Monday,
January 18, 1999 04:30 PM


>John V Jackson wrote:
>>
[snip]
>
>> Does anyone have a reference/url for this?
>>
>
>Yes.
[snip]

Thanks.


>> I would agree that birds are probably dinos though of course I would
doubt
>> some of the evidence Ralph accepts.  The basis for most of the common
belief
>> rests on just two accidents:
>>
>> 1)  The existing mindset of "the hunt for the *origins* of birds" by
those
>> who noticed the  _Deinonychus_/ Archy similarities, biasing the field
>> towards an ancestor relationship;
>
>...and resulting in what interpretive errors?

My view is that "_A_ ancestor to _D_" is the truer one.

>Are you suggesting that the
>similarities are all convergences?

No.

>What evidence that I accept do you doubt?
>Please be specific.


Cladistic evidence.

>
>> 2)  A bug in the commonly used basic cladistic algorithm which forces
>> flightless forms together.
>
>What bug is this, and where has the alleged arthropod led scientists
astray?

My view is expressed at :
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/2099/DinoKabin.html


>
>> Once freed from these two, the picture makes perfect sense, with no
>> unpleasant paradoxes.
>
>What picture?  If birds are not derived theropod dinosaurs in your opinion,

That's not my opinion.  I obviously haven't been shouting loudly enough!


>
>Termites are boring insects, but bugs suck.
>

Think of me more as a medicinal leech - a necessary evil.


JJ