Re: Picavus litencicensis->Ideas for Short Dinosaur Presentation

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I mean, we don't want any kiddies out there thinking that
> birds are just boring old birds and not dinosaurs.


I'm puzzled as to why this birds-are-dinosaurs (BAD) thing is such a
BFD.  Birds are dinosaurs, just as bats are mammals.  An emu, a
toucan, or a hummingbird are all birds.  They are also dinosaurs.  We
routinely refer to them as 'birds' because 'bird' is a convenient
category, especially in everyday vernacular usage.


But if we want to view birds through the prism of phylogeny, then
birds are theropod dinosaurs.  Either way, birds are not boring.  I
think it was Tom Holtz who said that context is important here.  The
fact that birds are now recognized as a subset of theropod dinosaurs
does not stop them from being birds.





Cheers

Tim