[no subject]

Actually, there are two sets of two contrary theories that are
somewhat independent here.

One set concerns the relationship of dinosaurs and birds.
One theory is that birds are derived from dinosaurs.  This
makes dinosaurs *intermediate* between birds and typical reptiles
(that is closely related to *both* birds *and* reptiles).
The alternate theory, mostly supported by two or three people,
especially Dr. Martin of the University of Kansas, is that birds
are derived from a different group of archosaurs - probably somewhere
near the origin of crocodiles.  In this case dinosaurs are only
closely related to reptiles.

The second set of theories concerns temperature regulation.
That is whether dinosaurs were "warm-blooded" or "cold-blooded".
The majority opinion has tended to consider them as cold-blooded,
though that may change in the next few years based on some new
evidence.

Note, the majority opinion is thus cold-blooded *and* closely
related to birds - not a combination you mentioned.

 > Are there any scientists arguing on behalf of both
 >     theories?  That is, that some dinos were cold blooded and some
 were
 >     warm blooded?

The new evidence supporting "warm-blooded" dinosaurs happens
to also indicate that the sauropod dinosaurs (like Apatosaurus
and Brachiosaurus) were "cold-blooded".

 > Has anyone tried to argue that some dinosaurs could be
 >     related to mammals?

No, anatomically, that is impossible.  Mammals have a very
different skull structure, similar to that found in a group
of reptiles called synapsids, or mammal-like reptiles.
[There are other differences in anatomy besides that
which rule out a close relationship to mammals].

 >  Triceratops always looked suspiciously like a
 >     rhino to me, but I'm sure there are enough skeletal differences
 to blow
 >     that silly theory out of the water.

It is probably *ecologically* similar - that is *convergent*,
just like the marsupial tiger is convergent to the placental one.

Similarity in features relating directly to ecological adaptations
is a poor basis for deriving relationships, as such tend to
be convergent.

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.