Re: small dinosaurs with feathers

[StephanPickering@cs.com]

       My jestful litigatory remarks are not to be misinterpreted as anything other than humour on my part, although I am not emending the crux of my ideas: dinosaurs = "birds" = dinosaurs, and to break the mind-set of vernacularism we should, with delight, use the word (or combinations of words) "theropod" to describe living taxa. If, in scientific discussion and dialogue, we are going to use the word "bird", it should always be put in quotation marks. However arrogant, annoying, or confusing, I have spent a lifetime with pre-K/T dinosaurs, and can view  extant avialian theropods. Our goal should be precision -- those who would deny dinosaurs = "birds" (they are the "scholars" with a fetish for "bird" baths) are to be countered at every opportunity with factuality. For me, it is a never-ending source of wonder that, even after the bollide impact, and unimaginable environmental stresses, some therop!
od!
!
s survived, and survive today.