But then you have to invent *longer* ways of referring to the clades! "Avians and dinosaurs", "avians and theropods", "avians and maniraptors", etc.
Actually, _Maniraptora_ has included avians since its inception--avians are actually included *by definition* (and are even the only group included specifically by definition). So removing avians from _Maniraptora_ would be completely changing the intent of the group. -- T. Michael Keesey The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com