Re: Sauropod Ancestors

[jshields@iol.ie (James Shields)]

>I am extremely skeptical of the claim that the prosauropods do
>not include the ancestors of the sauropods.  There is a tendency
>for cladistic analysis to treat ancestors as a sister group, at
>least so it seems to me.
>
>I have seen similar results in cladistic analysis of hominids,
>claiming that none of the known fossil species is ancestral to
>Homo sapiens!  There cannot be *that* many undiscovered hominids!

One thing we have a habit of forgetting is how few species we actually know
about from fossil evidence. I book I read (can't remember which one)
suggested approximately 1 in 10,000.

Personally, I suspect its even less than that.

Presumably, more recent species are better known than ancient ones, but
there could still be a lot of unknown hominids...

James Shields  -  jshields@iol.ie  -  http://www.iol.ie/~jshields
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