Re: [paleo_bio_dinosaur_ontology] dinosaur skeletal anatomy

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Taylor" <mike@indexdata.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 8:36 PM

> "The number of dinosaurs that
> have ever lived is estimated at 900-1200 genera. The
> fossil record of dinosaurs is presently about 25%
> complete. Dinosaurs disappeared in the Maastrichtian
> near the peak of their historic diversity."

Million or not, I'm willing to bet quite something that the fossil record of
dinosaurs is even presently (13 years later) nowhere near 25 % complete.
Have a look at any cladogram: we don't know one of the ancestors which the
cladograms describe. -- And Dodson didn't include the birds :-) -- and the
other small stuff all the way down to *Microraptor* and *Epidendrosaurus*
was largely unknown. As were the alvarezsaurs and most of the noasaurs...
and so on.

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Carl Sagan never said "billions and billions". In his posthumous book
(Random House 1997) he devotes an entire chapter, and the title of the book
(... "Billions and Billions") to making clear that and why he didn't. :-)

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HP Nick Gardner's sig:

[ Vision without action
  is a daydream. Action
  without vision is a
  nightmare.
  -Japanese proverb ]

Who[ever] has visions needs a doctor
-- Bruno "The Sun King" Kreisky, Austrian Federal Chancellor 1970 -- 19...83
IIRC

May be why there's so little action in Austria. :-} Respectively, now that
there is some action, it is guided by visions the proponents of which really
need a doctor. But I digress.