Re: Reflections on Recent "Dromaeosaurs"

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Timothy Williams wrote:

> The recent trend (at least among some dino researchers, particularly at the 
> AMNH) is to call this clade "Avialae" ={_Archaeopteryx_ + Neornithes}.  
> "Aves", however, is limited to the crown-group of modern birds.  Personally 
> I prefer Aves = {_Archaeopteryx_ + Neornithes}.

Although this was the original suggestion, I believe the use of Aves for
{_Archaeopteryx_ + Neornithes} and Avialae for 
{Neornithes > _Deinonychus_} is far more common. This is also much more
in keeping with the traditional usage of Aves. There is already a
perfectly good term (Neornithes) for the crown group.

-- T. Michael Keesey .................................. <tmk@dinosauricon.com>
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