Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 07:27:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "S. Hoffmann" Subject: Re: "Birds are dinosaurs"? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Instead of "eating like a bird", we'd be "eating like a dinosaur"! People without responsibilities would be "free as a dinosaur"! A dummy would be a "dinosaurbrain"! What fun! S. Hoffmann ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet Millenson" To: Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 10:18 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] "Birds are dinosaurs"? > 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.co m > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================