Re: Sci. Am. - present. [long]

["Andrew W. Robinson" <awrobinson@amoco.com>]

From: "Jonathan R. Wagner" <znc14@TTACS.TTU.EDU>
> 
> John V Jackson wrote:
> 
> >Why must a media superstar like her always suffer the indignity of being
> >placed ancestral to a creature 70 million years earlier?
>         Aw jeez, here we go again. This has been discussed many times both
> on this list and off. Summary:
>         a) the terrestrial vertebrate fossil record is woefully incomplete
>         b) the terrestrial vertebrate fossil record has not been
>                 completely explored
>         c) we don't really have the same exposure of Jurassic sedimentary 
> rocks
>                 as we do for the relatively well known Late Cretaceous
>         d) even then, there are possible troodontid teeth in the Morrison 
> [sic?]
>                 Formation. Depending on whose phylogeny you use, this ranges
>                 from suggestive to decicive evidence against your point
> 

As an Amateurid (hopefully Gottaclueidae), this timing issue 
is the one thing that bothers me about the birds from dinosaurs 
hypothesis. However, this type of response from the BFD camp 
bothers me even more. It reminds me of arguments by the Aquadic 
Ape enthusiasts on sci.archology, "We must be right because 
there are no fossils to prove us wrong." Why not just admit that 
this is a problem and that you are working to resolve it?

Andrew Robinson
-- 
Offshore Business Unit           email: awrobinson@amoco.com
Amoco Corporation                      phone: (504) 586-6888
New Orleans, LA                          fax: (504) 586-2637
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