Re: Martin 2004 critique

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Phil Bigelow wrote-

> I really like Dr. Martin.  I have chatted with him briefly on a couple
> occasions years ago, and I found him to be a funny, personable
> intelligent guy.  And I have heard that he is a great paleontology
> instructor.  But I am baffled as to why journal editors cut him so much
> slack.  I hope this post doesn't come across as me beating up on him.
> This is all about the editors, not about Martin.

.. and Scott Hartman wrote-

> And to be even more blunt, I will say this is indeed a criticism of
> Martin.  Larry has always been freindly to me, and I have always tried
> to return that courtesty, but if he truly is this unfamiliar with the
> relevant literature then he has no business writing a paper on the
> subject, and it's tragic that the editors of AZS provided a sounding
> board for such tripe.

Ah yes, this was an aspect of the critique I didn't comment on.  It wasn't
meant as a personal criticism of Martin, as I met him at SVP and he's a
really friendly guy.  He also spent time to write me back and forth about
bird origins some months ago, and I appreciate that.  But I also agree with
Scott that papers like this have no right to make it into the literature,
and that professionally Martin should work harder to get his facts right and
realize the implications for his statements.

Mickey Mortimer
Undergraduate, Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington
The Theropod Database - http://students.washington.edu/eoraptor/Home.html