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RE: What is a Dinosaur?



Tracy,
I am not in the least surprised that they couldn't come up with a unifying trait for Dinosauria (even one that is subject to some degree of reversal). And the strict cladists can boo and hiss at me all they want, but I was truly shocked that I couldn't get a really serious discussion on any of Sereno's purported synapomorphies of Dinosauria (little but semantics, nitpicking and irrelevant diversions). If such serious discussion requires a fully formed alternative cladistic paradigm, then you are going to be in for a long wait, and I can now see why Dinogeorge seems reluctant to discuss his own ideas on dinosaur origins in this forum until he has an overwhelmingly strong case to present. I don't think this is scientifically healthy, but this is apparently the way it is.
It also has become increasingly apparent to me that basal dinosaur relationships cannot be fully understood without a critical reappraisal of Crurotarsi, and Ornithosuchidae in particular. I am particularly interested in some of Jack Conrad's comments on this subject which I found today. Cladistic inertia tends to get in the way of evaluating such alternative viewpoints, not an inertia borne of cladistic analysis (which I personally find very useful), but of cladistic taxonomy per se.
So tomorrow I will be taking a hard look at what Jack Conrad posted on the subject of basal crurotarsi and basal dinosaurs. Sometimes scientific understanding can parallel evolutionary punctuated equilibria (and strict cladism and strict eclectisim can both stifle punctuated advances in such understanding). Here is a link to some of those ideas I will be evaluating:


http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/1636/sauropsida/archosauriformes.html

********************************************
From: "Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>
Reply-To: dino.hunter@home.com
To: "Dinonet" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Subject: RE: What is a Dinosaur?
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 16:42:06 -0700


This topic reminds me of the first and only Dinosaur Systematic symposium that the Royal Tyrrell Museum held. There was a round table discussion and one of the questions was What is a dinosaur? All the big dinosaur people were there, and none could come up with a unifying trait that all dinosaurs had.

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




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