Re: Long-necked stegosaur, head tail mimicry?

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

Nick Pharris writes:
 > >  > Speaking of long sauropod necks... there's a new paper in the
 > >  > pipeline on _Euhelopus_.  Although Wilson & Upchurch break up
 > >  > the clade of long-necked Chinese sauropods ("Euhelopodidae",
 > >  > containing _Euhelopus_, _Mamenchisaurus_, and _Omeisaurus_),
 > >  > they baulk at erecting (or defining) a new Euhelopodidae,
 > >  > which would include _Euhelopus_ and _Erketu_.
 > >
 > > I should think so!  It would be disastrous to resurrect that name
 > > to denote a completely different clade from the one that it has
 > > been universally understood to mean.
 > 
 > Why?  Hasn't Euhelopodidae always been universally understood to
 > mean something like "_Euhelopus_ and its closest relatives, up to
 > the level of morphological disparity I'm willing to accept as a
 > single 'family'"?

No, it's been mostly used (when at all) to mean "that group of
crazy-ass Chinese sauropods".

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