Re: Wagner's yearly attempt at establishing verbal rigour [was: Re:Biggest Predators]

[Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette <dinosaur@dinosaur.org>]

That's
C O N S C I E N T I O U S

isn't it?


"Jonathan R. Wagner" wrote:

>         This year, the otherwise quite careful and conscientuous Mike Keesey
> gets to star as the object lesson for Wagner's anal retentive phrasing patrol.
>
> T. Mike Keesey wrote:
> >_G._ and _C._ are carcharodontosaurids. There is a minority opinion that
> >carcharodontosaurids are related to abelisaurids, [...]
>         The majority apparently considering them to be descended from space
> aliens, I take it?
>         Remember, ladies and gentlemen, *all* life is related. This "X is
> not related to Y" crud is an artifact of taxonomic rank, and wasn't even all
> that accurate under typological taxonomy anyway. I will stake several small
> cities on carcharodontosaurids and abelisaurids shareing at least one, and
> probably a tremendous number of common ancestors. Otherwise, how do you
> explain the fantastic similarities in their skeletons (i.e. having orbits,
> infratemporal fenestrae, teeth, vertebrae, pelves, etc. etc. etc. asd
> infinitum)? If two animals share a common ancestor, they are related. As far
> as we know, all animals share a common ancestor. Therefor all animals are
> "related", no matter how many different "families" you create to stick them 
> in.
>
>         End of overly-pedantic rant.
>
>         Sorry Mike.
>
>         Wagner
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>      Jonathan R. Wagner, Dept. of Geosciences, TTU, Lubbock, TX 79409-1053
>  "Only those whose life is short can truly believe that love is 
> forever"-Lorien

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