Re: Birds and pornography

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Your job is much easier if you look at Classes.
> Does it have feathers?  Bird.

So then sorry for using *Caudipteryx* in my previous post.
Does it have half-feathers (*Sinosauropteryx* -- thanks to HP Ben Creisler
for the link to Can. J. Earth Sci.)? Half-bird? Impossible under ICZN.

> You can now distinguish birds from dinosaurs from reptiles without
> agonizing over it.

Well, when it has no feathers of any kind, why should it be a reptile?

> As you said:
> <Of course phylogenetic _taxonomy_ is not a science.>
> Your next sentence says names assigned to animals are useful
> to understanding a science...  We won't go there, but this here
> is a definite insight.

Oh, thank you :-)

> Taxonomy is a naming convention.  Its purpose is ease of communication.
> To both scientists and the public.

Yep. In this case it should ease talking about the tree of life, about
clades rather than about grades, I think.