Dinosauria---Rejected Name?

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

Nick P. wrote:
 And who even knows about a group like Mammalia.   So why bother with 
descriptive names?
******************************************
    Be careful what you wish for.  We'll have to get rid of 
"Dinosauria"---(1) it's descriptive; and (2) worse yet, Dinosaurus is a 
genus of therapsid.  EGAD!!!  Looks like "Dinosauria" must be rejected on 
two grounds.
    And you might not like it so much if workers in other fields 
(invertebrates, plants, microbes) start dumping their familiar descriptive 
names (and a few have tried to do just that).  Do you want to learn a huge 
list of weird new names and throw out all those horrible old descriptive 
names like:
    Chordata, Echinodermata, Ctenophora, Cnidaria, Porifera, Arthropoda, 
Insecta, Crustacea, Diplopoda, Cephalapoda, Gastropoda, Trilobita, 
Cirripedia, Tardigrada, Platyhelmintha, Agnatha, Anthozoa, Scyphozoa, Fungi, 
Chrysophyta, Xanthophyta, Phaeophyta, Chlorophyta, Ciliophora, Cryptophyta, 
Rhodophyta, Haptophyta, Dinophyta, Foraminifera, Ascomycetes, 
Basidiomycetes, Cyanobacteria, Eubacteria, Metazoa, Metaphyta, Plantae, 
Aves, Mammalia, Tetrapoda, Polychaeta, Pogonophora, Scaphopoda, Asteroidea, 
Actinopterygii, Sarcopterygii, etc.
    And I haven't even got down to Order level yet.  It has been proposed 
that Lepidoptera be replaced by PAPIONIFORMES (and it certainly wasn't me), 
and likewise for various other insect orders.  And no more Chiroptera, 
Rodentia, Primates, Anura, Squamata, Dinosauria, and so on.  The typified 
systematization of Mollusca groups that has been proposed has enough weird 
names alone to make one want to swear off of typified names forever.
    So I would again urge you to be CAREFUL what you wish for.  Like that 
one Metallica song says, "you just might get it" (and then regret it).  And 
the cladistic "King Nothing" may end up with classifications that nobody 
will use, and his nomenclatural castle will crumble.  I think that might end 
up being a good theme song for PhyloCode.  Who knows?
            ;-)
           ----- TGIF, Ken



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