Re: BCF (was New Article in Experimental Zoology)

["T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>]

--- Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 8/26/02 2:19:05 AM EST, qilongia@yahoo.com writes:
> 
> << As listed before in this vein, no, and I mean
>  _no one_ I have talked to on synapsids, would consider *Dimetrodon* a
>  mammal. >>
> 
> Maybe it's time to revise the concept of "mammal."

They already did -- it's a crown clade.

Since the crown clades match the original content of such clades as _Aves_,
_Mammalia_, _Crocodylia_, etc., and since their traditional usages match the
crown clades more closely than they do the stem-based clades, it makes much
much more sense to apply them to the crown clades than the stem-based clades.
They were originally named for extant forms -- why should it not remain so?

(Besides, it pretty doubtful that _Dimetrodon_ had mammaries....)

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=====> T. Michael Keesey <keesey@bigfoot.com>
=====> The Dinosauricon <http://dinosauricon.com>
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