Re: Defining Ornithischia (was Re:)

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

> Secondly, it sounds like Mr Peters is using a character-based definition 
> for
> Paraornithischia.  However, from your description of "Paraornithischia" it
> appears that this group is paraphyletic, and therefore not a clade.  I'm 
> not
> certain that Mr Peters is aware of the difference.

Worse yet. It's not a definition in the first place -- it's a diagnosis.

While I am at it, Greek and Latin don't like vowel clusters in general 
and -ao- in particular. It should have been Parornithischia. But you're in 
good company -- everyone seems to use "epipophysis", which should be 
"epapophysis"...

For the record, I've seen the mounted skeleton of *Lotosaurus* in China. Has 
nothing in common with Ornithischia besides being a herbivorous archosaur. 
The whole skeleton (not just the ankle) screams "crurotarsan". For *Effigia* 
we have two descriptions that show it's not a dinosaur either...