Re: More Dino Venom

[Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>]

>>as phylogenetic bracketing gives the default state for any dinosaur as
>>unvenomous.
>
> This is true, but again, two extant clades is _*nowhere near*_ large enough a 
> sample size to be able to draw anthing more than perhaps some very sketchy 
> and wholly preliminary conclusions. As Erik pointed out, if in a few million 
> years snakes and many lizards were extinct, phylogenetic bracketing would 
> give the default state for any reptile of any sort as non-venomous. We simply 
> cannot say with much confidence at this time whether venom is extraordinary 
> for an archorsaur or not.

The thing is, parsimony has not to do with statistical size of a
sample (it is not a probabilistic approach), just with lowering the
number of suppositions we use when rising a theory. In phylogenetics,
these are supposed evolutionary steps.