Re: Brochu's avian article in latest JVP

["Timothy Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Chris Brochu (in reply to Betty Cunningham) wrote:

> We also state that people like Feduccia and Martin rarely, if ever, present
> an explicit set of relationships.  We couldn't include specific phylogenies
> from them because there aren't any, with rare exceptions (e.g. the trees in
> Whetstone and Wybrow or in Hecht and Tarsitano).  This is a problem

In my correspondence (off-list) I've come to realise that most of the 
opponents of the theropod/dinosaur origin of birds are also vehemently 
opposed to cladistics.  They contend that cladistics is too flawed a method 
for accurately evaluating relationships.

Instead, such individuals prefer methods that can best be described as 
"intuitive".  They pick a scenario that seems to make sense to them, then go 
about gathering evidence in support of it.  It allows them to be "warm and 
fuzzy" about which archosaurs were closest to the origin of birds, without 
having to pin down a particular group.  That's my take on it - they would 
describe it differently.


Tim


, but
> one the other side of the "debate" (such as it is) has to resolve - if you
> think placing birds somewhere other than Dinosauria improves stratigraphic
> congruence, let's see the tree; don't just tell us that birds are related
> to some sort of thecodont or crocodylomorph.  We simulated their ideas by
> pruning birds from Dinosauria and drawing them closer to one of the other
> postulated bird relatives.  I'm sure Martin and others will object to these
> trees, but if they don't give us an alternative, we have no choice.
>
>
>
>
> chris
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------
> Christopher A. Brochu
> Department of Geology
> Field Museum of Natural History
> 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
> Chicago, IL 60605
>
> voice: 312-665-7633
> fax: 312-665-7641
> electronic:  cbrochu@fmppr.fmnh.org

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