Re: dinosaur argument

[binder@zk3.dec.com (vitam gustare)]

Sabrina,

As several people have indicated, pterosaurs are currently agreed by
consensus not to be dinosaurs.

What none of the respondents so far has said is that one major and
obvious characteristic of pterosaurs that defines them as nondinosaurs
is that they were not terrestrial in nature.  Dinosaurs have been
defined (partially for convenience) as earthbound beasts.  They walked.
Some or perhaps all of them could swim, too, but their primary means of
locomotion was by foot, and that isn't the case for pterosaurs, which
were apparently flyers who raised their young on the ground; the recent
finding in Chile of what looks like a pterosaur rookery suggests that
at least spome pterosaur species were like modern gulls in their
habits.

Cladists, as has been pointed out, might argue with this definition...
:-)

-dick