Re: *Fluvioviridavis* is a Podargiform, PLoS ONE (OA)

[Vivian Allen <mrvivianallen@googlemail.com>]

Yeah, Nesbitt ain't playing.

On 1 December 2011 13:26, David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:
>>  This might be the best paper I've read describing a Tertiary bird.
>>  Most simply note a few 'key' areas of the skeleton, provide a small
>>  image of the skeleton, and at most include a tiny morphological
>>  analysis of a few taxa. Nesbitt et al. actually describe the
>>  morphology in depth, include detailed figures of the skull, pelvis,
>>  etc. and use a large analysis with many living and fossil
>>  cypselomorph OTUs, molecular characters and several potential
>>  outgroups. If more workers follow their example we might get
>>  neoavian phylogeny worked out sooner than later.
>
>
> Have you noticed...
> -- The first author has never, AFAIK, worked on birds before, but has
> recently published a seriously big phylogenetic analysis and has previously
> published several in-depth morphological descriptions of Triassic animals.
> -- The second author has published on penguin phylogeny and IIRC
> descriptions of new Paleogene birds, but is also familiar with other
> dinosaurs.
> -- The third author has worked on Mesozoic birds and the origin of birds, is
> a former student of the man who authored the publication that introduced
> phylogenetics to the study of dinosaurs, and is deeply involved in
> phylogenetic nomenclature.
>
> None of them is a mainstream paleornithologist...
>
> I hope they transform the field.