Re: Aquatic dinosaurs

[Tompaleo@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-06-25 11:05:16 EDT, Dalmiro Maia wrote:

>I've seen often stated, I think even in this mailing list, that there
>were no aquatic dinos, yet some exist even today (penguins). To what
>time can we trace the first "aquatic dinos"? are they in anyway related
>to ichtyosaur extinction or loss of diversity? Why do people generally 
>fail to recognize the existence of aquatic dinosaurs? I've just found
>such a claim in one post at sci.antropology.paleo

Taking your logic to it's fullest then we could say that the cretaceous forms
_Ichthyornis_ and _Hesperorinis_  to name a couple were aquatic dinosaurs
since they were aquatic birds. But I think that what is really meant is that
there are no  known  _nonavian_  ( in the cladistic sense) aquatic  _
dinosaurs . Or something like that ;-)

regards,
Thomas R. Lipka 
Paleontological/Geological Studies