retroverted pubis, Asian surnames, and JP.

["David Elliott" <dalelemu@hotmail.com>]

I have a question about the pubis in dromaeosaurs - does it have common 
descent with a bird's pubis, or is it possible it's convergence? And a 
side-question - in a 1997 posting i found while looking at the archives, it 
was mentioned that only dromaeosaurs, birds and therizinosaurs had the 
retroverted pubis among saurischians - is that still true? What's it like in 
_Mononykus_ and _Patagonykus_ (or do they go under "birds")?

(Only thought to ask because i have a friend who had heard me mention the 
bird-dinosaur thing, and asked me if it was the ornithischians that they 
were descended from, and then i was telling her about the dromaeosaurs 
having a bird-like hip, and now im suddenly wondering if i was right to just 
take for granted that the dromaeosaur pubis led to the bird's pubis, as ive 
never seen it explicitly stated. (Yes, i was also impressed that she knew 
"saurischian" and "ornithischian", but had only recently come across the 
idea that birds are within dinosaurs!))

About Asian surnames: quick question from one self-professed lurker to 
another:

Andrea Kirk wrote: >Japanese surnames are commonly (at least, in Japan!) put 
before the personal names, just as in Chinese.  I'm a bit surprised to hear 
that this journal prints them Western-style.  As for the origin of Japanese 
surnames, some of them are clan names, some are place names, and I think the 
most logical reason for them to be written surname-first is simply Japanese 
grammar.  A name like "Tokugawa Ieyasu" would have been written in an 
earlier time as "Tokugawa no Ieyasu", or Ieyasu OF [the clan of] Tokugawa.<

Is it possible that names in Japanese are changed according to the language 
they're being spoken in? For example, because it's "Ieyasu of clan 
Tokugawa", it becomes "Ieyasu Tokegawa" if Ieyasu happens to be being 
introduced by somebody speaking in English (and so it'd go back to normal 
when being introduced in Japanese)? So i would *become* "Elliott David" as 
long as i was introducing myself in Japanese, if "David of clan Elliott" is 
"Elliott no David" in Japanese, thus possibly explaining the Westernized 
grammar in the article? I'm probably wrong, but it's just a thought.

And finally, i dont post often, so ill get it all out in one single jolt...

> And as if that wasnt enough, T.rex had to go beserk around L.A. i think 
> they'd really win the prize if they had added thousands of japanese people 
> running in the streets screaming, but since this is a hollywood movie the 
> japanese was exchanged with cars crashing;)<

Actually Speilberg did have a quick deliberate shot when a group of Japanese 
businessmen among the fleeing crowd where the only ones in the frame. (and 
it was San Diego (not LA))

I took the scientific explanation of the tyrannosaur's beserkness as being a 
kind of joke as well, like they were saying "Ok, yeah, we know it's dumb, 
but let us do it. You know you want it..."

> JP4: if we follow this line, this will be a frenzy in dinosaurs eating
dinosaurs, dinosaurs eating people, people eating dinosaurs and possible 
people eating people. I'm so excited:)<

Ok, that had me rolling on the floor laughing.

David

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