camarasaurids; and more clarifications

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

    Regarding camarasaurids, my more traditional classification of 
dinosaurs has Family Camarasauridae as sister group to (Brachiosauridae + 
Titanosauridae).  But be aware that my Titanosauridae (sensu lato) is 
equivalent to "Titanosauria" which has been cladistically chopped up into 3 
(or more?) separate families (which I would probably recognize as 
subfamilies if I formally recognized subfamilies).  When genera are overly 
chopped up, it can quickly inflate cladistic hierarchies at higher levels 
(and so maybe placing Maiasaura in Brachylophosaurus, and other "lumpings" 
should be seriously considered).
     I should mention that the Kinman System does not *forbid* the use of 
formal intermediate ranks, but tries to strongly discourage it (unlike 
strict cladists who do *forbid* the recognition of *ANY* formal paraphyletic 
taxa).  In any case, I think it is silly to give placozoans their own 
subkingdom----- but given their apparent uniqueness and deep placement in 
the Metazoan tree, a separate Phylum Placozoa seems justified (more so than 
Mesozoa, which are apparently secondarily-simplified bilaterians, and 
besides mesozoans may be polyphyletic if two or more such groups arose 
independently):
      KINGDOM METAZOA
1   Porifera
2   Placozoa
3A  Cnidaria
 B  Petalonamata (extinct phylum)
4   Ctenophora
      ..... and so on.

    And rather than name a new formal clade "Epitheliozoa", why not just 
call them non-Poriferan metazoans (or epitheliozoans).  And with reference 
to the above coded classification in particular, you can refer to it as 
clade Metazoa 2+ (epitheliozoans).  I'm not against giving names to such 
clades, but let's keep it informal, and save the formal names for the 
most-strongly supported clades.   Too tired to clarify any further tonight.
             -----Ken Kinman

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