RE: Furthering Self Study

["Bartlema, Lauri, L." <BartlemaL@emh10.bliss.army.mil>]

Ahh, welcome to the world of many of us!  Taxonomy, being somewhat a "work
in progress", will always be changing!  I work with mammals, both extinct
and extant, and it isn't any different.  What I do is make charts that I
hang up on the wall, I have "old" taxonomy, and then "new" taxonomy, showing
changes of all kinds, whether they are name changes at any level, pulling a
critter out of one family group and installing it into another, adding new
species as they are described, etc.  This way, I can keep track of the
changes as they occur, but if I need to read about something in the older
literature, I will have the "old" stuff handy, so I will know what the
author(s) are talking about.  It's been helpful so far, especially with
recent changes in mammalian taxonomy proposed by McKenna and Bell.  I have
the distinct feeling that this technique, altered in some way that you
personally can work with, will help to gain and maintain understanding of
whatever dinosaur groups you are interested in.

Lauri L. Bartlema
Curatorial Assistant
Conservation Division
Directorate of Environment
Fort Bliss, Texas

> ----------
> From:         LONEWOLF[SMTP:s086529@student.uq.edu.au]
> Reply To:     s086529@student.uq.edu.au
> Sent:         Friday, August 13, 1999 4:32 PM
> To:   Dinosaur ListServer
> Subject:      Furthering Self Study
> 
> 
> 2. I've had a few books that were suggested to me, but it seems that the
> taxonomy is always changing and you've got all sorts of new
> classifications and discoveries every year. I'd like something relatively
> up to date. 
>