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Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 14:04:58 -0500
From: Kevin de Queiroz <Dequeiroz.Kevin@NMNH.SI.EDU>
To: PhyloCode@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Subject: Re: apomorphy-based names
David Marjanovic wrote: "Well, if we define Aves apomorphically on feathers, lots of other = theropods, at least all coelurosaurs, are birds..." That's true, but I'm unclear about the point David was trying to make. = Those people who conceptualize the clade named Aves as the clade stemming = from the first archosaur species to evolve feathers will consider those = theropods to be part of Aves. Those who conceptualize the clade differentl= y may not. My point was that these distinctions, while important to = paleontologists, are not particularly important to neontologists, because = (for example) the clade of feathered archosarus, that of winged archosarus,= and that of the crown group stemming from the MRCA of sparrows, ostriches,= and tinamous all have the same composition in the Recent biota. =20 Kevin de Queiroz Division of Amphibians & Reptiles National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20560-0162 Phone: (202) 357-2212 FAX: (202) 786-2979 e-mail: dequeirk@nmnh.si.edu