Strict cladists get "earful" from Gregory Paul

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
     Gregory S. Paul, author of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (1988) and
Dinosaurs of the Air (2002) gave strict cladists quite an "earful" last
night in a posting to the Dinosaur Mailing List.  Sounds a bit like some of
my own "rants", starting out rather subdued and then working up to some
outbursts of frustration towards the end.  But I think that he (like Peter
Dodson) is a little bit too pessimistic about cladistic analysis (we just
need to learn to use it more wisely and in moderation).
     Anyway, I found it to be very interesting reading.  And it clearly
demonstrates why I have been so adamant about expanding Class AVES to
include dromaeosaurs and several other maniraptoran taxa (I will soon be
incorporating several new genera and families from the Czerkas book into my
classification of AVES).  Here's a link to Gregory's post for those who wish
to read it:

http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2002Sep/msg00255.html

            --- Cheers,  Ken Kinman



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