Re: Coelurosaur phylogeny

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Mickey Mortimer (Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com) wrote:

<Enigmosauria is just as valid as Dromavialae, Tyrannoraptora or
Theropoda.>

  Though it hasn't been used much, Tyrannoraptora was not named in a
graphic tree that represented an idea, but the result of a specific set of
data that provided an arrangement. The thesis behind the Naish and Martill
figure has never been explained, and its use has never been elaborated on.
If one would recall the extensive debate of naming taxa, especially those
that are not species or "genera" in figures, then using Ji and Ji's
undefined or diagnosed or in anyway explained usage of "Dromavialae" to
defend the use of another quoted name as being unquoted, then applied to a
structure to which has not been defined, then one has defined a strawman.
By using one to defend the other, and trying to support it with defined
and better used names like Tyrannoraptora and Theropoda, is in this
person's mind a fallacy.

  The following is in part a discussion on the subject of Ji and Ji's very
unpopular taxonomy, which has NEVER been used.

Originally Mike Keesey wrote:
http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2002Feb/msg00463.html

and Mickey Mortimer defended:
http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2002Feb/msg00476.html

Keesey points out the flaws of trying to apply definitions and structure
to names that appear only in cladograms:
http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2002Feb/msg00501.html

  The name remains in quotes, as it has never been explicitly named,
utilized, defined, diagnosed, or applied in any matter IN PRINT other than
a label in a figure. This is horrible taxonomy, jumping on names that
appear in any manner. Take for instance the popular use of an unpublished
name "Huaxia..." that will likely never see print because of the public
discussion and use of it.

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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