Re: Birds and pornography

[NJPharris@aol.com]

> Would you really want to change the bird definition to:  'someone's current
> best guess about which known fossils probably most resembled what the most
> almost non-bird ancestor of a bird looked like.' ?

Well, maybe if you're Ken Kinman (sorry, Ken, couldn't resist!)

No, I'm reasonably happy with "the most recent common ancestor of [the type 
specimen of *Archaeopteryx lithographica*] and [that *Passer domesticus* I saw 
on the street this morning] and all of its descendants".  At least this 
definition is not dependent on an individual researcher, even if the entities 
it describes might be.

--Nick P.