RE: Sinosauropteryx filament melanosomes challenged

[Sim Koning <simkoning@msn.com>]

 I consider Archosaurs to be a class "above" reptiles. I would also include 
crocs since they probably evolved from warm-blooded ancestors and have 4 
chambered hearts. The name "class" suggests something analogous to a social 
hierarchy, and upright limbs and warm-blooded, or at least secondarily 
cold-blooded physiology is more than enough to qualify archosaurs as a class 
analogous to mammals.
 
Sim 

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> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 12:37:56 -0600
> From: vultur-10@neo.tamu.edu
> To: simkoning@msn.com
> Subject: Re: Sinosauropteryx filament melanosomes challenged
>
> 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.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sim Koning" 
> To: "David Marjanovic" , dinosaur@usc.edu
> Sent: Monday, December 6, 2010 11:37:22 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: RE: Sinosauropteryx filament melanosomes challenged
>
>
>
> Let me guess...they call us BADies? Is it alright if I call myself a 
> WAASCORE? (Why are archosaurs still considered reptiles?!)
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 11:30:47 +0100
> > From: david.marjanovic@gmx.at
> > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Subject: Re: Sinosauropteryx filament melanosomes challenged
> >
> > > They are also sometimes known as the BAND camp (flutes optional).
> >
> > In all fairness, Storrs "BAND leader" Olson invented this. At the SAPE*
> > meeting in Beijing in 1996, he and some or all of the other BANDits ran
> > around wearing buttons saying "Birds Are NOT Dinosaurs!".
> >
> > * Society for Avian Paleontology & Evolution.                               
> >