Re: Rahonavis....Both!

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/23/99 11:58:42 PM EST, tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu writes:

<< Personally, I reserve the word
 "bird" for avians, but some extend it to all avialans. "Bird" IS a
 vernacular term, after all. >>

There are several interesting advantages to defining birds as "all archosaurs
closer to extant birds than to crocodilians (and maybe turtles, for that
matter)." For one thing, it stifles the debate on whether and which dinosaurs
are birds and vice versa. >All< dinosaurs become birds according to this
definition. Then all you need to debate are such questions as, "Which
dinosaurs are not also >avialan< birds?"