Re: Fossil Discovery Threatens Theory of Birds' Evolution

[ELurio@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/26/00 7:59:54 PM, ornstn@home.com writes:

<< So what?  Time has nothing to do with degree of relationship, and 
certainly 
lothing to do with extent of evolutionary divergence.  There are animals 
living today belonging to the same GENUS as Devonian animals (eg the 
brachiopod Lingula); even among vertebrates, the Australian lungfish is 
very closely related to the Devonian genus Ceratodus.  Anyway, if Dilly is 
right and graptolites are pterobranchs then they did NOT go extinct in the 
Devonian, merely dropped out of the fossil record. >>

Or another group of pterobranchs evolved the graphotite bodyplan sometime 
during the Tertiary. Graphotites were very common during the Silurian and the 
Devonian. 

eric l.