Re: Politeness (was: Therizinosaurs)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 02:16 AM 12/5/97 EST, Dinogeorge wrote:
>In a message dated 97-12-05 00:32:18 EST, zenlizard@juno.com writes:
>
><< Thanks to both of you.  You two so obviously disagree on this issue  (and
> some others)  that it would be easy to degenerate into name calling. 
> Instead, you attack each others analyses, professional ideas and
> theories.  You two do so in a very refreshing, professional manner.  It
> pleases me to see this sort of maturity on the net, where so often
> disagreements devolve into useless personal insults.  I thought it worth
> bringing up, since such  behavior should be encouraged. >>
>
>I have always thought very highly of Tom's work and knowledge of
>dinosaurology, make no mistake about it. He has very helpfully reviewed
>publications of mine in the past (such as the still-in-preparation Historical
>Dinosaurology #1) and, time permitting, I hope he will be able to do so in the
>future.
>

And, as I've said before, I think a lot of George's ideas might be quite
reasonable (heterodontosaurids as basal marginocephalians, paronychodontids
as pachycephalosaur teeth, diphyly of Thyreophora, etc.).  I would like to
see these and other questions approached from a different methodology,
perhaps, but I think they deserve some serious investigation.

Plus, George is one of the few people out there (Ralph Chapman's another)
who reads comparable masses of dinosaur literature to me, so if I can't
remember a source, or wondering if such exists, George is the first on the
list for hunting stuff up.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661