Re: Most popular/common dinosaur misconceptions

[dinoboygraphics@aol.com]

> > > As far as the birds/dinosaurs thang I know the arguments and cannot 
argue against any of those points. I suppose what I'm trying to figure 
out or convay is somehow we're going to need to have some seperation. 
Dinosaurs did not go completly extinct cause birds decended. True. 
Birds are technicly dinosaurs because of the rules of 
clandestitronicitudes. But somehow the act of labeling makes ness the 
seperation of the extinct dinosaurs and the living brand. All of whom 
share common characteristics that make them all aves.
crap now my head hurts. Tweedy not dinosaur!<<<

Ironically, you have just hit on why it is so vital (from an 
educational point of view) to insist upon calling birds "dinosaurs" 
(and non-avian dinosaurs, well.... "non-avian dinosaurs").  Because the 
separation is NOT very big, and to think otherwise is to let our 
historical vantage point cloud us from the evolutionary reality.  A 
robin and a non-avian theropod have far, far more in common in their 
skeletons than bats do to most other mammal groups.  There is not a 
single morphological arguement that makes birds more different from 
other dinosaurs than bats (or even cetaceans) are from other mammals.  
The only remaining reasons would have to be that birds are alive and 
other dinosaurs are dead, or that we are simply "not used to it".  
Niether of which is not a valid rationale for phylogenetic systemmatics.

No wonder Americans have a hard time with understanding evolutionary 
biology, when some try to make mountains out of evolutionary mole hills.

Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-3466 ext. 230
Cell: (307) 921-8333

www.skeletaldrawing.com


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