Re: Benton and Kinman

["Tim Williams" <tijawi@hotmail.com>]

Ken Kinman wrote:

> The way I look at it, Avea (or Aves if you prefer)

I prefer "Aves".  Hmmm... you want everybody stick to the system invented by 
Linnaeus, for the sake of stability(!) - but at the same time you're 
changing all of Linnaeus's names.

> could have been classified as the sister family to Dromaeosauridae back in
> the middle of the Mesozoic, but then Aves underwent an enormous amount of
> anagenesis and diversification which justifies raising it to a higher rank.

"Higher rank"?  Sufferin' succotash!!

Once again we return to the "universal yardstick for morphological 
diversity".  Only Ken has this wonderful device.  It allows him to pinpoint 
exactly when a certain group of organisms obtain a novel and exalted 
character which vaults them onto a "higher" plane of existence, thus 
qualifying them to a new "Class."

;-)

Unfortunately, when it comes to separating birds from other theropods, I 
can't see what the Big Deal is.  If you think that birds are so different 
from reptiles that they deserve their own "Class", then just compare 
_Archaeopteryx_ to _Microraptor_.  Morphologically speaking, you couldn't 
separate the two of them with a cigarette paper.


>     Using a military hierarchy as an analogy, Reptilia was like a big land
> army in which only a single company specialized in airplane duties in the
> early years---- but then the "air force" company expanded rapidly and 
> becomes a separate branch ("Class" Air Force) that rivaled the importance 
> and diversity of the "Class" Army from which it was removed.  A crude 
> analogy, but you get the idea.

No I don't.  They are all just subdivisions of a monophyletic "Armed 
Forces".  As you say, the "airforce company" evolved from and within the 
army.  (And what the dickens does "importance" mean in an evolutionary 
context?)

Using your analogy, bats should also get their own class - after all, like 
airplanes they can fly.  And whales would get their own class too - like 
submarines, they can propel themselves in water and spend all of their time 
there.  Just like the Navy.



Tim


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