RE: Ceratops (was RE: Glishades ericksoni, ...)

[Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>]

> > That may be largely true, but it's certainly not unanimous.  
> > For example, Peter Dodson's book _The Horned Dinosaurs_ uses 
> > Ceratopsinae throughout.
> 
> And Paul Sereno (who certainly qualifies as a ceratopsian
> expert, given his
> association with Psittacosaurus in particular) uses
> Ceratopsinae.

Good points, although Peter Dodson also co-authored the 
chapter in Dinosauria 2nd Ed. which came out more recently 
than The Horned Dinosaurs (and which uses Chasmosaurinae). 
In any case, Ceratopsinae may not be the best name for 
Chasmosaurines (this is mixed up, isn't it?) because, as 
noted earlier, Ceratops is quite possibly a basal form. 
Plus, there are Centrosaurines with prominent brow horns. 

On the other hand, a stable nomenclature is also important, 
as long as everyone knows what you're talking about. The 
problem is that our best-fit trees evolve as more new taxa 
(and better specimens of established taxa) are recovered. 


> Yes.  My beef is more with Ceratopsidae, a taxon that 
> (despite being named after a dubious genus) does have general 
> acceptance.  Perhaps we should re-name it Centrosauridae...?

Nah. Ceratopsidae is a great name for that clade because, 
again, Ceratops is likely a basal form, i.e. near the root 
of Centrosaurinae + Chasmosaurinae, and it's also the 
root in many existing ceratopsid generic names, e.g. 
Triceratops, Avaceratops, Arrhinoceratops, etc., not all 
of which are Chasmosaurine/Ceratopsine.