[Taxacom] New systematics book

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,

 

     Since we will never have anything near a complete fossil record, we will always have gaps that make drawing the boundary lines easier.  The gaps in the theropod to bird transition have narrowed, but are still substantial.  

 

      The question is whether we should continue to regard Archaeopterx as the first bird, or draw the line within an earlier gap.  Hopefully we will find a gap that has a fossilizable character (or group of characters) that evolved relatively quickly, like the transformation of jaw bones into the three ear bones which marks the boundary between reptiles and the first mammals (endothermy was no help there either).

 

          ------Ken

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:02:31 +0200
> From: aphodiinaemate at gmail.com
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New systematics book
> 
> Curtis Clark wrote:
> >One by one, the synapomorphies of
> >"birds" fall deeper into the theropods as we learn more.
> 
> If we had access to fossils for every species that has ever lived our
> classifications would be one large list of species names. And if we had
> access to fossils of all populations of every species that has ever lived
> we probably wouldn´t have species either.
> 
> 
> On 10 September 2013 05:44, Curtis Clark <lists at curtisclark.org> wrote:
> 
> > On 2013-09-09 8:09 AM, Fred Schueler wrote:
> > > * if reptilia is a grade, "Birds are descended from Reptiles" is just a
> > > way of saying "endothermy is an avian apomorphy."
> >
> > Aye, there's the rub. The evidence of endothermy in non-avian dinosaurs
> > is pervasive if not conclusive. One by one, the synapomorphies of
> > "birds" fall deeper into the theropods as we learn more.
> >
> > --
> > Curtis Clark http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
> > Biological Sciences +1 909 869 4140
> > Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
> > Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
> >
> > The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> > methods:
> >
> > (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
> >
> > (2) a Google search specified as: site:
> > mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom your search terms here
> >
> > Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
> 
> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:
> 
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
> 
> (2) a Google search specified as: site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom your search terms here
> 
> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.