Re: Sinosauropteryx filament melanosomes challenged

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Tue, Dec 7th, 2010 at 5:38 AM, vultur-10@neo.tamu.edu wrote:

> I think the word 'reptile' (or 'Reptilia', etc.) should just be dropped from 
> any phylogenetic
> system; it just confuses the public to make Reptilia include birds. "Reptile" 
> is a perfectly good
> word for "ectothermic amniote"; it doesn't need to be crammed into 
> designating a clade, any 
more
> than 'fish' (="non-tetrapod vertebrates"?) does. Clades are not the only 
> useful categories.
> 
> So (IMO) crocodiles should be 'reptiles'; dinosaurs should not. 

Yet crocs are also archosaurs, and only secondarily ectothermic. By your 
definition that would 
make them secondarily reptilian as well. So much for attempting to avoid 
confusion... :-)

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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