Re: OCCAM'S RAZOR & THERIZINOSAURS

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

John V Jackson wrote:

> --Original Message--  From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr   Date: 31 July 1998 14:09
> Subject: Re: OCCAM'S RAZOR & THERIZINOSAURS
>
> >At 12:11 AM 7/29/98 +0100, John "High Priest of Olsvhevsky-ism" Jackson
> wrote:
>
> >>Yup.  Three wierd discoveries within twelve months, and only George
> >>"Cassandra" Olshevsky's theories predicted them all.  Spooky eh?
> >>
> >
> >Very curious statement...
>
> Come on Tom - when are you going to give him some credit for his
> predictions?  After all, prediction surely is an important part of that
> fully-agreed-upon unchanging entity you suggest "science" is!
>
> It would have been a bit mean to have named all the people who hadn't
> predicted:
>
> 1)  Sinosauropteryx's fluffy stuff
>
> 2)  Caudipteryx (& Protarchaeopteryx)'s feathers
>
> 3)  The early Jurassic "therizino..."
>
> . . . as well as a bit laboured.  As you've called it into question though,
> I feel justified in pointing out that no cladogram-wielding professional
> palaeontologist well known to this list (for example you and Chris)
> predicted *all three* (except perhaps for > . . . the Colbert-Chatterjee
> hypothesis (i.e., all major lines of dinosaurs originated in the Triassic) <
> . . . which may be an honest expression of belief but is unfortunately
> difficult to test).

OTOH, it's also true that I managed to predict items 1 and 2 in January 1996,
eight months before _Sinosauropteryx_ started making headlines.  If I could get
them right, they must not be all that earthshaking, n'est-ce pas?

-- Jon W.