Re: Feduccia: the same old story...

[dinoboygraphics@aol.com]

Ken Carpenter wrote: "Regarding Fedducia and others, I will defend his 
right to be wrong (to
paraphrase Voltaire). So let him have his say."

Hmm...I would also defend his right to be wrong, but I don't think I 
can defend his right to get a few things in this most recent paper 
through peer review.

It's not ok to address old arguements (e.g. homeotic frameshift of 
manual development) and ignore new data that corroborates it.  It's 
certainly not ok to quote mine and make it look like an author is 
saying the opposite of what he intended, as they did to GP.

I'm also not sure it's kosher to make grandiose claims like "... while 
paleontologists employing cladistic methodology use a list of a hundred 
or more characters that link birds and theropods, most are simple 
binary designations, one step removed from the organisms. The vast 
majority are plesiomorphic, not qualifying as Hennigian 
synapomorphies..." without, you know, some real discussion of that 
methodology and some support for the diea that hey are all 
plesiomorphic.

Not to say that there should be formal censorship of particular 
veiwpoints, but I don't think we need to lower standards just to let 
certain view points in, which I feel has happened with Fedducia's last 
paper or two on the subject.

Of course, I defend Ken's right to disagree with me on this point... ;)


Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(408) 483-9284

www.skeletaldrawing.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken.Carpenter@dmns.org
To: david.marjanovic@gmx.at; dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:36:38 -0600
Subject: RE: Feduccia: the same old story...

Dear all,
Regarding Fedducia and others, I will defend his right to be wrong (to
paraphrase Voltaire). So let him have his say.

Kenneth Carpenter, Ph.D.
Curator of Lower Vertebrate Paleontology/
Chief Preparator
Department of Earth Sciences
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80205

Phone: 303-370-6392
Fax: 303-331-6492
************************************************************
for PDFs of some of my publications, as well as information of the 
Cedar
Mountain Project:
https://scientists.dmns.org/sites/kencarpenter/default.aspx

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu] On Behalf 
Of David
Marjanovic
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 12:04 PM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Feduccia: the same old story...

> Why is it that Feduccia's story keeps repeating itself?

Because his knowledge of dinosaurs doesn't increase. It stays where it 
is,
so the story stays where it is. I don't think there's any tactics 
behind
that (apart from fooling himself a bit... or two).

> Until Feduccia et al  get down to basics and finally read, analyze
> and counter ALL the arguments and papers that are out there

He doesn't know most of these. And he doesn't _want_ to know any of 
these.
He is not interested in dinosaurs -- just like most or all of us 
cyber-here
aren't interested in... in procolophonids, or in Miocene lizards, or in
palaeoniscoid fish.

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