RE: Australodocus bohetii - new diplodocoid from... Africa

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mike Taylor wrote:

> It's getting pretty exciting in the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Remember 
> that we already had the brachiosaurid _Brachiosaurus brancai_, the probable 
> titanosaurs _Janenschia_ and _Tendaguria_ and
> the diplodocine _Tornieria_.  Add in the new diplodocine _Australodocus_, 
> and the putative new brachiosaurid that I spoke about at SVPCA 2005, and we 
> either have a collection of six neosauropods or an epidemic of 
> oversplitting :-)  (Clearly I favour the former.)

I'd bet dollars to donuts that _Janenschia_ and _Tendaguria_ eventually turn 
out to be one and the same.  Apart from that, I don't think the Tendaguru 
sauropod fauna is oversplit at all.

As for _Brachiosaurus brancai_... it could be it's own genus.  There's 
already a genus name available... darn, if only I could remember it...

(from another thread:)

> And hypotheses generated by running a cladistic analysis are just as 
> provision, just as subject to being overturned, as those generated in other 
> ways.  (The great advantage of cladistics is not really that it gives 
> better results than any other way of hypothesising phylogeny, but that it 
> forces you to "show your working", so that others can replicate and improve 
> upon it.)

Beautifully said, Mike.  Cladistics allows a given phylogenetic hypothesis 
to be tested - such as every time a new taxon (or a more complete specimen 
of a known taxon) is discovered.

Cladistics also helps minimize the HWF ("Hand-Waving Factor") in 
phylogenetic scenarios.  There's still hand-waving, but it only comes after 
you get a phylogenetic tree.  Nowadays, the tree is the foundation for 
constructing an evolutionary scenario, not the other way round.

Cheers

Tim

_________________________________________________________________
Like the way Microsoft Office Outlook works? You?ll love Windows Live 
Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_outlook_0507