From: dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu [mailto:dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu] On Behalf Of Anthony
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 6:05 AM
> > It doesn't mean we have to include Deinodon in an analysis, only that we have to use evidence to place it somewhere in a phylogeny. Maybe that would be morphometric evidence, as that's commonly used based on expansions of Smith's tooth
> > measurement sample. Of course adding Deinodon to a phylogenetic analysis is itself scientifically interesting- to tell us something quantitative about where it belongs in the tree of life.
>
> As we all know, _Deinodon_ is known from a handful of teeth that Leidy
> decided to dignify with a name. The fact that _Deinodon_ has a name
> is the only reason it gets any attention at all. I'm not certain how
> "scientifically" interesting plugging it into an analysis would be. I
> suspect it might be a grand waste of time.
>Wait...are teeth no longer considered adequate to distinguish one species or genus from
>another?
In this case, yes. Nature isn’t about absolutes. Teeth can be diagnostic to the species level in one part of the tree and pretty much useless in taxonomy in another part.
> Jocelyn Falconnet <j.falconnet@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > If we have to forget names based on nomina dubia... what about
> > ceratopsians and other Ceratops-derived names ?
>
> We're only talking about coordinated family-level names
> (superfamily/-oidea, family/-idae, subfamily/-inae, tribe/-ini).
>that seems rather arbitrary...why stop there? if we're supposed to give that up on Family-level, > why not on the other levels too?
It is arbitrary, but that is where the rules of the ICZN ended.
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
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