Re: Birds and dinosaurs

[Tompaleo@aol.com]

>But if you want to be even MORE correct, you of course should say >either
(1) dinosaurs are birds (cladistic version), or (2) dinosaurs >descended from
[dino]-birds (Linnaean version); the Birds Came >First (BCF).

Weeeell, it seems to me, IMHO, that your saying the same thing. The jury is
not yet in on the "dino-birds" what we have to date are dinosaurs and birds +
Archaeopteryx. BTW, I'm not fond of overzealous splitting of taxons/ranks  in
the Linnaean system either!
How many splitters and how many lumpers are out there?

                                         Regards,
                                         Thomas R. Lipka
                                         Paleontological/Geological Studies