RE: Shoehorning (Augury and Alvarezsauria)

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

    Unfortunately I am beginning to learn that vertebrate paleontology is a 
lot more isolated on this subject than I thought.  If a cladist like 
Platnick is against PhyloCode, then it is probably even more doomed than I 
once thought.
     It's all out there in the literature, but just not much in the 
literature of vertebrate paleontology.  It's a good idea to be as eclectic 
in your reading as possible in order to get a good sense of what is going on 
in biology as a whole.  So many lessons to be learn, but only if one is 
*really* open to constructive criticism.  Otherwise the artificiality of 
strict cladism can't be recognized for what it is.              ------- Ken

*****************************************
Tim Williams wrote:

> Ken Kinman wrote:
>
> >      And if you don't believe me about destability in cladistic
> > classifications, then read the words of Norman Platnick (a cladist).
>
>
> >From the speech in question:
>
> "It seems that there are at least two motivations behind this movement,
> which I'm ashamed to say was originated by two herpetologists from the 
> U.S.,
> Kevin De Queiroz and Jacques Gauthier.  One motivation, seemingly, is just
> to find some way to salvage non-monophyletic groups like Reptilia and
> Dinosauria, so that herpetologists are not inconvenienced by increased
> understanding of amniote interrelationships."
>
> Yeah, it all makes sense now: It's all just a herpetological conspiracy.  
> If
> only Fox Mulder wasn't MIA, we could finally get to the bottom of this.
>
>
>
> Tim
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Timothy J. Williams
>
> USDA-ARS Researcher
> Agronomy Hall
> Iowa State University
> Ames IA 50014
>
> P

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com