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And biogeography is a subset of phylogeny, since cladogenesis often occurs due to geographic separation. From: Dan Chure <danchure@easilink.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:24 PM To: Yazbeck, Thomas Michael; dinosaur-l@usc.edu; Poekilopleuron Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Main goals in future dinosaur paleontology Anatomy and phylogeny. Those are pretty much the foundation for
everything else. Dan On 4/11/2017 3:21 PM, Yazbeck, Thomas Michael wrote: > > The main goals are whatever dino workers want to study. With any new > discovery, there are bound to be many questions about a new taxon or > specimen. I would say that one thing that is less often discussed is > expanding geographic coverage for dinosaurs. There are many > dinosaur-bearing rocks in countries which have not been explored in > detail by scientists. In some cases this is due to political > considerations, or financial or legal constraints. I just heard of > some dinosaur material recently found in Iran, a country that is hard > (for American scientists, at least) to get access too. But nearby in > the Levant are some places which probably are hiding some dinosaurs - > I just read of a Lebanese pterosaur, which is exciting because Lebanon > is known for other excellent fossils from the Cretaceous (multiple > Lagerstaetten, in fact). Israel and Jordan are also in the same boat, > with (off the top of my head) dinosaur footprints and pterosaur > postcrania found in those countries, respectively. Africa is also a > huge, huge continent which is hiding way, way more dinosaurs than the > aforementioned countries. Late Late Cretaceous continental Africa is a > major gap in our understanding of dinosaurs, and that is beginning to > be filled since a new Maastrichtian abelisaurid was discovered this > year in Morocco. Find out all you can about countries on the map with > <2 named dinosaur species. > > Hope that helps. > > Thomas Yazbeck > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu> on > behalf of Poekilopleuron <dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> > *Sent:* Tuesday, April 11, 2017 2:58 AM > *To:* dinosaur-l@usc.edu > *Subject:* [dinosaur] Main goals in future dinosaur paleontology > Good day, > > I have a simple, albeit an important, question: What are the main > (general) "goals" in the dinosaur paleontology in the future? Is it > creating a comprehensive phylogeny, describe as many new species as > possible, understand dinosaur physiology and paleoecology better, > understand their extinction and early development, use modern > technology to make a breakthrough in their research or something else > entirely? Or is it just all of those plus something more? Thank you in > advance, Tom |