Re: Magnapaulia, "new" lambeosaurine from Baja California, Mexico

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Thomas Yazbeck <tyazbeck@comcast.net> wrote:


> Well, 'ease of use' is really what I was aiming for anyways.


"Ease of use" to whom?


> It's hard to keep track of new genera, so one might as well combine two very
> similar genera. And by 'average man', I meant paleontologist, not any dude 
> off the street. Keeping the # of dinosaur genera to a
> conservative, but not over-lumped, amount is what I'm aiming for here (a sort 
> of comprehensive taxonomic clean-up).


But if the total number of species remains unchanged, what's the
point?  As an example, why is lumping _Microraptor zhaoianus_ into
_Sinornithosaurus_ a positive step?  _S. millenii_ and _S. zhaoianus_
are still two separate species.


Raptorial Talon is right: it's just bookkeeping.  Lumping species will
reduce the number of genus-level "labels", but it has no scientific
value.








Cheers

Tim