RE: Most popular/common dinosaur misconceptions

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> 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.

To put this another way: in what concievable fashion should Microraptor and 
Caudipteryx be grouped with Brachiosaurus, Triceratops,
and Stegosaurus, but NOT with Jeholornis and Archaeopteryx ?

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

Indeed!

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796