Re: this is what I see on my browser for that article on Pelagornis chilensis

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

On Fri, Oct 28th, 2011 at 9:24 AM, Brian Hathaway <hammeris1@att.net> wrote:

> Natural Historyâ??Huge Pseudoteethâ?? ruled the skies for approximately 50-60 
> million years (yes, a lot longer than weâ??ve been around!), 
> then vanished about 2 million years ago.  It was found in northern Chile (and 
> perhaps elsewhere) 
> and sported a long, slender beak lined with tooth-like projections. 


I was looking at the ABC News Australia version (since it's one of the more 
reliable news services). 
It sounds like the other one you linked to paraphrased the ABC article badly 
then.

As a general rule, any on-line article that contains exclamation marks is 
probably
 not of the highest quality. :-)


> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>
> 
> 
> The direct quote is
> 
> "Bony-toothed birds were a very successful group, living during most of the 
> Cenozoic period over a 
> 
> time span of 50 to 60 million years."
> 
> The article isn't mentioning any particular species, or even genus, when it 
> gives the 50-60 million 
> 
> year timespan. It's like saying that coelacanths or lungfish as general 
> groups 
> have been around for 
> 
> 400 million years. It doesn't imply that any individual species or even genus 
> has lasted all that time.

-- 
_____________________________________________________________

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