Re: Class AVES expanded (preliminary classification)

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

    As I have stated in the past, inching Class Aves down in steps would be 
too destabilizing.  This is a one time thing for me, and I have given it a 
great deal of thought.  This is not "inching", as the transfer includes 
oviraptorosaurs, segnosaurs, troodonts, avimimids, and dromaeosaurs (and I 
already had Order Mononykiformes in Aves).
     I certainly would not object to a Clade "Ornithes" that includes all 
dinosaurs, birds, and relatives (assuming BCF is shown to be correct).  But 
a crown-group Aves has already been proposed and noone uses it.  And this 
modestly expanded Aves does not equal Maniraptora (which is stem-based), and 
the latter name isn't particularly appropriate for the whole group anyway 
(since most birds don't go around "manuraptoring" their food).
    It is quite obviously vaned feathers that have always been the hallmark 
of birds (and Aves), and that is why Archaeopteryx was so classified.  And 
now we have a number of new birds with vaned feathers.  But I am basing the 
group on osteological features which are about as close as we are likely to 
ever find that are as useful as the osteological characters which are used 
to define Mammalia.  Taken together with the ornithoid eggshells, 
non-saurischiform pelvises, lateral should joints (and a lot of other bird 
characteristics), I think this is the best way to proceed.  Clade Ornithes 
can come later, if and when BCF is shown to be correct (but that could be 
decades from now).
           ------- Ken
****************************************
George wrote:
> You're just inching down toward the BCF taxonomy here...
> I think we should restrict the name Aves (from Latin for birds) to the 
> smallest node-based clade that includes all extant birds (this is its 
> original and traditional usage), and create a name Ornithes (from Greek for 
> birds) for the largest stem-based clade that includes Aves. Ornithes would 
> then include all the dinosaurs and dino-birds, as well as any other 
> archosaurs more closely related to extant birds than to extant 
> crocodylians.



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