Re: Transformational and taxic approaches to character coding [was Re: Philosophies for Character Ordering]

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Incidentally, a cc: reply will usually allow the cc: respondent to get the
email before the to: respondents, especially if the to: is on a listserv
of some sort, which go through queues, whereas personal emails tend to hit
much faster. This gives the cc: respondent a chance to see the email
faster, and respond before the listserv sees it. It's also a courtesy. I
figure the double emails are a fair balance to getting them a little
earlier. One can always delete the excess.

David Marjanovic (david.marjanovic@gmx.at) wrote:

<1. Proximal articulation: (0) cotylar, (1) flat, (2) condylar
 2. Distal articulation: (0) cotylar, (1) flat, (2) condylar
 
 This allows for biconvex (22), amphiplatyan (11) and amphicoelous (00)
vertebrae as well as procoelous (02) and opisthocoelous (20) ones. These
two characters are (almost?) independent, because only (01) and (10) don't
occur in reality (or do they?), and they're certainly logically
independent.>

  I take this approach to extreme, and if I were to code for sauropod
tails, I would start taking into account that each region of the tail may
exhibit a different series of consistent conditions, so proximal, median,
and distal segments will recieve their own sets of characters. (01) and
(10) are platycoelous (proplatyan and what I call "opisthoplatyan"), and
this does occur, as in some theropod cervicals and dorsals, and even
sauropod tails. There is also the potential for some hadrosaur cervicals
with a cranial cotylus and caudal flat face, so (21) is possible, and in
some sauropod caudals, so would (12).

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


        
                
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