Re: Archosaur Origins...was:MESENOSAURUS ERRATA.

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/31/01 1:02:25 AM EST, qilongia@yahoo.com writes:

<< I should not have made such a generality.... however, I can pretty much 
assure you that there are very few people who would conceivably confuse a 
titanosaur with a turkey. They are also separated by a great deal of phyletic 
distance. Besides, you haven't answered my question. >>

By the same token, they're not likely to confuse a turkey with an eagle, 
either. What's happening here is that >you< are the one making the aesthetic 
judgment, when you want to keep dinosaurs from being classified as birds 
despite the fact that they're more closely related to modern birds than they 
are to any other extant animals. The idea of Apatosaurus as a giant, 
four-legged bird may seem strange at first, but after a while you get used to 
it. Just as the idea of a hummingbird as a small, flying dinosaur takes some 
getting used to.