Re: Archaeopterodactylus and Euornithes

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Mike Keesey (keesey@gmail.com) wrote:

<CMIIW, but I think the ICZN mandate is just that superfamilies must end with
-oidea, not that nothing else may. For example, Crinoidea, Asteroidea,
Holothuroidea, Echinoidea, etc. are traditionally subphyla of Echinodermata.>

  The ICZN is wierd, and best remodelled with phylogenetics in mind, as well
was with optional ranks and such. Unlikely, but heh, they may surprise us. As
for mandated use of -oidea, I've heard it argued by a few sticklers for the old
ways that -oidea, because it's mandated by the ICZN for superfamilies, should
be used _only_ for such to avoid nomenclatural confusion. There are even genera
named ending in -oidea that may confuse people about this; imagine taxa ending
in -idae that were not "families", and see these cases raising eyebrows. The
obvious disadvantage of this system is tat it confuses placement of names in
associating them as including certain groups of names. The obvious advantages,
however, are that it opens taxonomic freedom to use Greek and Latin stems to
name taxa as you wish, for what you wish, without having to pretend ranks are
real.

<So what exactly is in _Archaeopterodactyloidea_? (What a mouthful!)>

  What might ordinarily be called Ctenochasmatoidea, if that name were not
applied to an included clade as well: Ctenochasmatidae, *Pterodactylus* and
*Germanodactylus*. *Feilongus* is apparently a "ctenochasmatoid," allied with
*Gallodactylus* and *Cycnorhamphus* within a group also including
*Ctenochasma*, *Pterodaustro* and *Gnathosaurus*. *Nurhacius* is allied with
*Istiodactylus* in an "Istiodactylidae" (another mess is the excessive
"-idaes").

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


        
                
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