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Re: Archosauromorph classification & Thecodonts

At 02:54 PM 6/21/00 +0000, Jeffrey Martz wrote: 
     Dinosauria, as its currently understood, is monophyletic and useful to
refer to; Thecodontia is paraphyletic and is not.

I tend to agree that Thecondontia is not particularly useful, but not *because* it is paraphyletic.

  If you look at any given
cladogram, count up the possible number paraphyletic groups you could name.
...  I doubt anybody could argue that most of the groupings you could
make are useful for anything at all.  Paraphyletic groupings need to be
chosen carefully and conservatively to have some utility.


Absolutely.  I would not even consider most possible paraphyletic groups.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com