Re: Stratigraphy, biogeography & cladograms

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

"Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." wrote:
>In cladistics one doesn't search for ancestors, but for sister taxa.
<snip>
> HOWEVER, under phylogenetic taxonomy, "modern birds" (Gauthier's Aves, most
> people's Neornithes) has been defined as all descendants of the most recent
> common ancestors of paleognaths and neognaths

If you can define descendants, aren't you be default define ancestors?

> BTW, who is "Seino"?  The compsognathid _Sinosauropteryx_?  The
> enantiornithine _Sinornis_?

Seino is Sino spelled very late at night, and while distracted.

-Betty