Re: Problems with paedomorphic bird skull paper

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Rescued from truncation, comment below:

> Hi Mickey,
>
> I've just take a very brief look on your post "Does Confuciusornis
> really have a skull configuration like juvenile Alligator? ".
>
> Taking by granted that your Geometric Morphometrics (GM) knowledge is
> average I just want to remember one thing on this group of morphometric
> techniques:
>
> 1 -- the "wireframes" (Splines) indicate locations of deformation of an
> individual compared to the consensus and not the original landmark
> configuration.
>
> Saying this I will read more carefully your post.
>
> Best
>
> Luis Azevedo Rodrigues
>
> --
> Luis Azevedo Rodrigues
> Paleontologist (PhD)/Science communicator/Teacher
> Publico Newspaper invited blog/Science Blogs Brazil
> Ciencia Ao Natural - cienciaaonatural.net
> twitter.com/CienAoNatural
> independent.academia.edu/LuisARodrigues

What do you mean by "consensus"? An average of several individuals? That 
is obviously not the case here. For *Confuciusornis*, Bhullar et al. say 
they used specifically GMV-2132, _and_ no *C.* specimen looks _remotely_ 
like their wireframe. For the Montsec hatchling, there can't even be an 
average, because there is only a single specimen (LP-4450-IEI).