Re: Human bottlenecks and bird taxonomy (was: Re: "Dinosaurs Died Within Hours...)

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Eric Martichuski wrote-

> More like 70,000 years ago (give or take).  But it's not as suspect as you
> might believe.

Interesting.  Do any other species show evidence for such a bottleneck at
that time?

> Why did Linneaus, et. al. choose the Gryphon vulture as an exemplar?  The
> ostrich, as a highly divergent out-lier, I can understand.  And I have
near
> total ignorance concerning Tinamous.  But are vultures _really_ so unique
as
> to merit serving as one of the brackets of their entire clade?  And why
the
> Gryphon vulture?  Just an random choice by Linneaus?

It's really a choice by Gauthier and de Queiroz (2001), based on the fact
Vultur gryphon was the first bird listed in the 10th edition of Systema
Naturae.  Before that, Passer was generally used as the neognath specifier,
if any was given.  For Gauthier and de Quieroz's definition of Aves, they
chose a member of each group of living birds.  Struthio camelus was the
first named ratite, Tinamus major the first named tinamou, and Vultur
gryphon the first named neognath (as explained above).

Now what I'm confused by is why they use Pluvialis apricaria for the
neognath specifier, and Fringilla domestica as the neoavian specifier.

Mickey Mortimer