Re: Youngest dino remains

[Pharris Nicholas J <pharrinj@plu.edu>]

On Fri, 19 Mar 1999 Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:

> Unfortunately, they're not equivalent. There are no >extant< groups between
> birds and crocodiles, but there are many >extant< groups that would fall into
> this definition of bats that are manifestly not bats. Extant groups aside,
> there is no real objection to redefining bats this way.

Who cares whether the groups are extant or not?  There are a great many
known fossil taxa (_Triceratops_, _Gastonia_, _Dicraeosaurus_, etc.) that
are "manifestly not birds", yet fall inside your definition of birds.

As I have mentioned before, BCF is simply _speculation_ on the physical
form and lifestyle of some undiscovered common ancestors--the very same
common ancestors uncovered by cladistics and other phylogenetic methods.

-Nick P