Re: Undefined names, Caudipteryx

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> >because it conveys more information (even if only about the "size" = 
> >contents of Aramidae). 
> 
> Maybe, but you shouldn't forget that everyday people don't work with  
> cladistics 
 
I think that's changing... phylogenetic trees are everywhere, and nowadays 
most are made by means of cladistics. 
 
> and if you have to put something like phylogeny in a book for the 
> masses it's much more comprehensible if everything's placed in 
> ''niveaus'' of the same importance to avoid that people might wonder why 
> some species seem to have a far greater importance or status then other 
> species. 
 
To the contrary! It's much more comprehensible if *Trichoplax adhaerens* 
doesn't get a monotypic subkingdom, which creates the illusion of a huge 
diversity that isn't there. Having Aramidae and Gruidae next to each other 
makes one think that they're equally diverse. If *Aramus* alone is the 
sistergroup of Gruidae, why not present it as such? 
        In addition, "the same importance" is misleading anyway. I'm sure 
you've heard all those lamentations "yeah... insect orders are really more 
like vertebrate classes... compared to everything else, vertebrates are 
totally oversplit..." -- we can't measure importance, _so why create the 
illusion that we could?_ 
        (For the record... I don't have an opinion on gruiform phylogeny.) 
 
> Well there is this subfossil kagu,though I don't remember it's name as a 
> species.Furthermore,some include the extinct New Zealand adzebill 
> (Aptornis (or Apterornis)) in Rhynochetidae as well. 
 
thx 
 
> As for Psophia,I believe no fossil ones have ever been described,but  
> they must have existed obviously! 
 
But as long as we don't know any, why are we carrying the name Psophiidae 
around? We can always invent it later, when or rather if such a fossil is 
actually discovered. We don't need it yet. 

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