Re: Picavus litencicensis->Ideas for Short Dinosaur Presentation

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

Righto: my bad. And yes, I don't know why it's taking so long for
BADiness to become common knowledge. I've even taken to plastering BIRDS
ARE DINOSAURS in blinking, size 72 font across a slide in Level 1 palaeo
lectures, just to make it clear. 

Mark

>>> Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com> 21/02/2012 01:24 >>>
I agree with you Mark, on all three of your points.  I was actually
highlighting the fact that the origin of birds from dinosaurs (and
therefore that birds ARE dinosaurs) seems to run into a great deal of
irrational opposition.




On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 5:23 AM, Mark Witton <Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk>
wrote:
> "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