Re: Phyl tax misunderstandings

["King, Norm" <nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu>]

Tom Holtz said (11/14/97; 1:43p):

(out of context)

>Or, there will always be a clade (Maniraptora) comprised of birds 
>and all taxa sharing a more recent ancestor with birds than with
>Ornithomimidae.

As I have ranted before, you cannot DEFINE this evolutionary path into 
existence.  I believe that is an hypothesis that has not yet been 
"proved."  Just ask George Olshevsky or Alan Feduccia whether that clade 
will always exist.

We should use empirical data to establish what our hypotheses should be, 
not use our hypotheses to establish what kind of empirical data we think 
should be out there.  That's what Aristotle did.


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Norman R. King                                       tel:  (812) 464-1794
Department of Geosciences                            fax:  (812) 464-1960
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712                      e-mail:  nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu