Re: Picavus litencicensis->Ideas for Short Dinosaur Presentation

["Mark Witton" <Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk>]

"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."

I don't disagree, but there are three reasons to mention concepts of
BADiness when teaching kids. None means that they have to start
referring to birds as dinosaurs or anything.

1) It ties into concepts of evolution, descent with modification,
shared ancestry, biological classification and all that sort of stuff.
Dinosaurs are a good hook for these concepts, because they are very
charismatic animals. 

2) A lot of books and TV shows - still - mention that dinosaurs are
extinct. Why not set them straight if given the chance? 

3) The dinosaur-bird link is a topical subject that kids can actively
follow as new research, and their press stories, are published. Making
kids excited about any aspect of science cannot be a bad thing.

Mark

--

Dr. Mark Witton
www.markwitton.com
Lecturer
Palaeobiology Research Group
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road
Portsmouth
PO1 3QL

Tel: (44)2392 842418
E-mail: Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk

If pterosaurs are your thing, be sure to pop by:

- Pterosaur.Net: www.pterosaur.net
- The Pterosaur.Net blog: http://pterosaur-net.blogspot.com/
- My pterosaur artwork: www.flickr.com/photos/markwitton 


>>> Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com> 20/02/2012 02:03 >>>
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