RE: Sundry responses of Bois

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> KiernanCR@aol.com
<
> philidor11@snet.net wrote:
>
> >><...b) a mistaken view of dinosaurs as "reptiles"...>
>
> Before HP Holtz returns you might want to rephrase this statement.<<
>
> Rephrase how? I placed "reptiles" within quotation marks,
> qualifying it, for
> two reasons: 1) Reptilia is paraphyletic and 2) I was referring to the
> outdated perception of dinosaurs (and many other "reptiles," for
> that matter)
> as sluggish, lumbering, profoundly stupid targets for brainy furballs.

I don;t have a problem with "2"; however, Reptilia is very much monophyletic
as long as you put Aves in Reptilia (as is done by many workers today).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-314-7843