Re: small dinosaurs with feathers

["T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>]

--- StephanPickering@cs.com wrote:
>      Dinosaurs are dinosaurs are dinosaurs. Is there confusion in this? Some 
> dinosaur clades survived the K/T boundary events, perhaps for several million
> years, while some dinosaur clades survived, adapted, and are everywhere on 
> this planet. I hardly think it "confusing" to refer to living theropods as 
> theropod dinosaurs, nor is it "annoying" to realize that the thousands of 
> species of dinosaurs alive in 2002 are dinosaurs. The vernacular word "bird" 
> cannot be suppressed, to be sure, as the intellectually challenged cling to 
> it like children cling frantically to their favourite blanket and binkie. I 
> choose to ignore the word "bird" because extant, avialian theropods cannot --
> repeat: cannot -- be diagnosed without, first, recognizing them as dinosaurs.

There are dozens ways you could refer to them: extant
avemetatarsalians/ornithotarsians, extant ornithodirans (unless this includes
crocodylians, per Peters), extant dinosauromorphs, dinosauriforms, dinosaurs,
saurischians, theropods, neotheropods, avepods, tetanurans,
neotetanurans/avetheropods, coelurosaurs, maniraptoriforms, maniraptors,
paravians, eumaniraptors, avialans, avians, metornitheans, pygostylians,
avebrevicaudans, ornithothoraceans, euornitheans/ornithuromorphs, ornithurans,
carinates, neornitheans. Extant feathered organisms/biotes. Extant volant
sauropsids/reptiles/diapsids. Extant endothermic archosaurs. Extant beaked
archosauromrophs. Extant birds. Modern birds. Modern avians. Different ones
will suit different contexts.

I think it's not that anyone (or most people on this list, anyway) disagrees
that modern birds are extant theropod dinosaurs, just that you don't always
have to call them that, just as you don't always have to refer to mammals as
extant cynodont therapsids. It does tie it back to the subject matter of the
list, though. I've got no beef with calling birds extant theropod dinosaurs,
but sometimes I'd just like to call them birds (or at least avians or avialans
- "bird" is a rather fuzzy term sometimes, I agree).

=====
=====> T. Michael Keesey <keesey@bigfoot.com>
=====> The Dinosauricon <http://dinosauricon.com>
=====> BloodySteak <http://bloodysteak.com>
=====> Instant Messenger <Ric Blayze>
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