Ave Maria

[zone65@bigpond.com]

> On Monday, September 8, 2003, at 01:12  PM, zone65@bigpond.com wrote:
>
> > This does make me wonder why the term Aves is still even used by 
> > paleontologists... for that matter, why is 'bird' still used if 
> > they're dinosaurs? Where is the distinction, and why?
>
> Birds (interchangeable with the word Aves by most peoples usage)

I thought there might have been some arcane new distinction as I've 
seen both used separately in the same description.

>  is a subset of the Dinosauria.
> Just as the set "spoons" are a subset of "cutlery". It doesn't stop 
> the group from being any more real (which birds are).

I guess I'm just a little disoriented now that spoons are no longer 
considered a class, but just a plain old clade.

> Hope this makes it a little clearer, John Conway

Thanks:-)!

Peter M