Re: Shaking up the bird family tree

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

> No, I'm afraid the "flighted from flightless"
> line is in the original
> paper. Sigh.

No disrespect to Steadman, but he's Late Quaternary paleontology really. Word 
to the wise: never publish such a study without having 2 of the following go 
over it first:
* Dyke
* Hope
* Clarke
* Mayr


BTW Fain & Houde 2004:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/8/20
Convenient from a paleontological PoV.


BTW2 the "correct" branch lengths are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grrlscientist/2613166215/
Like I said. If you map the fossils on the branches, it's like you can actually 
see the footprint from the K-Pg impact. Also note the beautiful case of long 
branch attraction the buttonquails make.

BTW3: Cracraft et al (2004): 
http://www.ummz.umich.edu/molsys/publications_files/cracraft-etal-2004-birdtol.pdf
Always a good thing to have at hand.


Regards,

Eike


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