Re: Metaves and Coronaves

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

>  Molecules certainly help, but they are not the final arbiter.

Oh, sure. Mayr has made a good case for (*Scopus* + (*Balaeniceps* + 
Steganopodes)), which consists of two clades in a large polytomy in Fain & 
Houde, for example. But, except for the preliminary results of Livezey & 
Zusi, no large-scale morphological neornithine analysis exists yet. We'll 
have to wait for the big thing...

Besides, I think large indels can be regarded as de facto morphological 
characters -- as long as the alignment is correct, and Fain & Houde have 
shown that theirs is correct enough.