Class AVES expanded

[Thomas DiBenedetto]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Kinman
 I won't ever be saying "birds ARE dinosaurs" which is a rather irritating
mantra that has come out of
AMNH.
***********
Oh Ken,
Not to start another round of the same old, same old, but could you just
give a straight answer to this?
Are humans animals? Or do you go with Huxley and place us in a separate
kingdom, the psychos (actually I do like that :) )? Are we in a class to
ourselves, or at least an order? If birds deserve their own class, what
about us? What about cetaceans? Or cephalopods? Do they really deserve to be
stuck with a bunch of slugs? Do you have any principles at all or are you
just winging it, as your new debate seems to indicate. Don't you see what is
happening as we learn more and more about the history of archosaurs? It will
incresingly be more difficult to sustain your artificial classification
schemes.
Where does Reptilia stop -- geez, gimme a break.
Of course birds are dinosaurs, just like we are animals,mammals, primates
etc. , just like all living things are part of the taxon Life. It is not a
mantra, it is a scientific discovery about how species really are related.

Tom DiBenedetto