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Re: Magnapaulia, "new" lambeosaurine from Baja California, Mexico
Although I was long an advocate of the train of thought that "dinosaur
genera should have more species so they match the aesthetic of modern
vertebrates" I've personally come around to the practical argument
that since we are unlikely to shake the use of binomials any time
soon, we would be better served to make all dinosaur genera monotypic,
so that morphological variation isn't hidden by genus-level OTUs in
our analyses.
It's arbitrary either way, so it may as well be arbitrary in the most
useful way.
YMMV.
-Scott
On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 8:04 AM, Heinrich Mallison
<heinrich.mallison@googlemail.com> wrote:
> a matter of practicability, though. Equivalent to "antelope".
> ___________________________________
> Dr. Heinrich Mallison
> Abteilung Forschung
> Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut
> für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung
> an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
> Invalidenstrasse 43
> 10115 Berlin
> Office phone: +49 (0)30 2093 8764
> Email: heinrich.mallison@gmail.com
> _____________________________________
> Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
> Gaius Julius Caesar
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 3:01 PM, Matthew Martyniuk <martyniuk@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 1:06 AM, <tyazbeck@comcast.net> wrote:
>>> I understand where you are coming from, but I think that the
>>> disproportionate number of dinosaur genera is deceptive, that's all.
>>
>> I'd argue the opposite--having genera with many included species is
>> deceptive for the average person. How many average science enthusiasts
>> know that "Psittacosaurus" is a category of animals containing dozens
>> of unique and distinct species? Including this diversity in the single
>> label "Psittacosaurus" effectively hides that diversity from everyone
>> but specialists.
>>
>> Matt
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Scott Hartman
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