Re: "Pterodactylus" kochi help?

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

Dave Peters (davidrpeters@earthlink.net) wrote:

<On the contrary, PAUP indicates that G. cristatus and G. rhamphastinus
are sister taxa, to no surprise. I don't think that's ever been
questioned.>

  By Dave, on his website, it was questioned. Just not in print, I think.
 
<If Nr. 23 is a juvenile of No. 64, then it becomes Germanodactylus kochi.
And the adult No. 64 likewise becomes G. kochi. Rhamphastinus is dropped.
We retain Pterodactylus kochi for all the other forms which currently
carry that genus and species.>

  Because *Pterodactylus* and *P. kochi* are both older than
*Germanodactylus* or *G. cristatus*, any specimen referal that might imply
that Germano is the adult form of Ptero, simply drop the name German or
cristatus. rhamphastinus appears likely to need a new name, or it also
gets subsumed as a species distinct in Pterodactylus.

 --Pterodactylus
    |--P. kochi (including G. cristatus)
    `--G. rhamphastinus

  This is highly speculative, of course, as the two forms have highly
divergent skull types, but most experts on pterosaurs, including Unwin,
Bennett, and Wellnhofer, appear to regard *Germanodactylus* as a distinct
taxon, and somewhat close to Dsungaripteridae, rather than anywhere in a
monophyly with *Pterodactylus* that would suggest they were even sister
taa, much less synonymous.

  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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