RE: birds and avians again

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of T.
Mike Keesey
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 4:33 PM
To: -Dinosaur Mailing List-
Subject: Re: birds and avians again

On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, Jaime A. Headden wrote:

>   I beleive both Chelonia and Crocodylia use fossil
> specifiers/anchors, but I cannot recall them off the top of my head.

No, I think they are crown groups. And actually, since _Chelonia_ is also
a genus, I think _Testudinata_ or _Testudines_ would be a preferable name
for the larger clade.<<

Well, I have it as
SUBCLASS: CHELONOMORPHA KUHN, 1960

SUBERCOHORT: TESTUDINES LINNAEUS, 1758
= ORDER: CHELONII BRONGNIART, 1800 (LATREILLE, 1800)
= ORDER: CHELONIA McCARTNEY, 1802
= ORDER: TESTUDINATA
= SUBSERIES: TESTUDINES BENTON & NORMAN, in BENTON, 1985


> Tetrapoda as well.

This was once defined as a crown group, but I think that proved unpopular
(much like for _Aves_). I'm not sure what the preferred definition is, but
it might be something like Clade(_Elginerpeton_ + _Homo_) or Clade(_Homo_
<-- _Panderichthys_, _Elpistostega_).

> Amniota is a stem excluding lissamphibians,<<

I also have
STEM: TETRAPODA GOODRICH, 1930
= SUPERSERIES: TETRAPODA BENTON & NORMAN, in BENTON, 1985

PLESION: ELGINERPETONTIDAE AHLBERG, 1995

ORDER: ICHTHYOSTEGALIA SAVE-SODERBERGH, 1932
= GRADUS: ICHTHYOSTEGALIA HUENE, 1956

SUPERCLASS: AMNIOTA HAECKEL, 1866
= SERIES AMNIOTA BENTON & NORMAN, in BENTON, 1985


I think it's a crown group, _Amniotomorpha_ being the stem.

Would love to know if Amniotomorpha has been used before 2000, if so where?

> and Synapsida is a stem from Sauropsida, or conventionally, Reptilia.
> Reptilia is a crown group clade comprising Chelonia, Lepidosauria
> [incl. snakes and mosasaurs], Crocodylia, and Dinosauria [incl.
> birds]. That these groups are already viable and the vernacular
> applies to them easily,

I would disagree in the case of _Reptilia_, a name that I really wish had
been dropped.<<

Also;
SUBCLASS: SYNAPSIDA
SUPERORDER: THERASPIDA BROOM, 1905
Who was the first to use Synapsida anyway?
CLASS: REPTILIA LAURENTI, 1768
= CLASS: MONOCONDYLIA COPE, 1890
Tracy