Re: "Pinnants" (was Re: BIRDY _ARCHAEOPTERYX_)

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/8/98 8:19:01 PM EST, 102354.2222@compuserve.com writes:

<< Come to think of it, yes, it really is...but if the
 arctometatarsalian condition is independently derived in the various
 "members of the Arctometatarsalia," then segnosaurs still make nice
 theropods...we just have to disband the Arctometatarsalia as it's currently
 diagnosed (that is, many of the members may still form a monophyletic
 taxon, but the arctometatarsalian foot condition isn't a good
 characteristic to diagnose the group). >>

Unless I misread the post, the argument was using the >reversal< of the avian
foot into the arctometatarsalian condition as something very unlikely to
happen. My point was that this is the same kind of transformation that must
take place in the theropod foot to make it segnosaurian, and that it must
surely, therefore, be just as unlikely.