Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 22:18:52 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: "Birds are dinosaurs"? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A relative phoned to tell me that in the book "Discovering Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History" (1995, by Mark Norell, Lowell Dingus, and Eugene Gaffney), birds are described as a TYPE of dinosaur -- not merely as DESCENDED from dinosaurs -- and the extinct critters whose bones are in museums are referred to as "non-avian dinosaurs." The Bee Hummingbird is referred to as "the smallest dinosaur." I gather that this classification scheme has moved from the "crackpot theory" end of the scientific scale closer to the "dominant paradigm" end. Could someone knowledgeable about taxonomy please comment? Sure, I'm willing to accept that my pet parrot is the great-great-great-whatever of a T. Rex -- she's definitely got that "rule the Earth" mind-set. But imagine if this new nomenclature becomes commonly accepted: ...We'd be shopping at the Wild Dinosaur Center for dinosaur feeders and dinosaur seed. ...We'd need to buy a "Guide to the Avian Dinosaurs of North America" to bring along on our dinosaur-watching field trips. ...The ABA would change its name to the AADA (American Avian Dinosaur Association). ...MOS would now stand for Maryland Ornithosaurian Society (gee, that's actually easier to pronounce!). Any other ideas? Janet Millenson Potomac, MD janet@twocrows.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================