RE: Alligator (Archosauria) "air sacs"

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Jura
>
> I agree with much of your presentation for why this wasn't 
> figured out a century ago, but I disagree that the reason 
> behind it was because crocs were lumped in as reptiles. It 
> was because of that old Victorian view (that in many ways 
> still holds today) that reptiles are all the same and all 
> simplistic, primitive animals. It took this long to figure 
> out how croc lungs worked not because crocs were thought to 
> have simple reptile lungs, but because the concept of the 
> simple reptile still exists.

Very similar to the old idea that reptiles do not have parental care (until 
people went out in the field and observed crocodilians),
or that reptiles do not show play behavior. Or (and this is still in some 
textbooks) that reptiles only have three-chambered hearts.

Typology continues to reign in many peoples' minds.


Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA