Re: Serration variation

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/9/00 7:35:38 PM EST, dbensen@gotnet.net writes:

<< Although I think that to some extent, serrations can be used, in a 
phylogenic
 analysis, I would be leery of any grand order of dinosaurs based on tooth
 serrations.  I'm sure that such a simple feature of teeth would be easily
 changeable and no doubt, some clades evolved, discarded, and then re-evolved
 serrations.  Tooth shape indicates behavior more than phylogeny. >>

Neither behavior nor tooth shape has been shown to be independent of 
phylogeny. So who knows what "more" means in this context. Also, I don't know 
of any theropod group in which >lost< tooth serrations were >regained<. But 
there were surely theropods that evolved serrated teeth independently of one 
another, from smaller (birdlike) theropods that had tiny, unserrated 
teeth--the same kind as seen in Archaeopteryx.