The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

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billbillt
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The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#1 Post by billbillt » Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:28 pm

An earthquake has struck the paleontology world !!!...

http://www.livescience.com/58374-update ... 0170324-ls

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actinophrys
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Re: The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#2 Post by actinophrys » Sat Mar 25, 2017 6:52 pm

It's a very interesting result to me! As a rule, a single new cladogram should be taken with a good dose of salt, I'd say especially when it contradicts relationships that seem very well-established. Those very often get overturned or at least left questionable with new data.

But this is the first time I've ever seen the main dinosaur splits debated, and it makes me wonder if they even were so plain in the first place, or just not really considered. For instance that's sort of how I felt about the idea that annelids belong near molluscs not arthropods. There was a lot of investigation and debate before it was generally accepted, but it seems to me that the moment it was proposed segmentation might have developed twice, it made so much sense as they really have little else in common.

I have mixed feelings about redefining Saurischia to exclude most of the traditional saurischians, though. I think I get why, they don't actually all have lizard-like hips and it saves replacing it with a new name. But it does make for potential confusion – to the point where even that single LiveScience article uses it differently on the new trees from Nature and Cambridge.

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Re: The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#3 Post by Rodney » Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:45 am

I`m sure what we don`t know could fill a battleship with papers, and what they find over months and years will continue to change in certain areas since ancient times will never be completely understood. What we continue to find makes it more interesting.
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billbillt
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Re: The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#4 Post by billbillt » Mon Mar 27, 2017 3:00 pm

actinophrys wrote:It's a very interesting result to me! As a rule, a single new cladogram should be taken with a good dose of salt, I'd say especially when it contradicts relationships that seem very well-established. Those very often get overturned or at least left questionable with new data.

But this is the first time I've ever seen the main dinosaur splits debated, and it makes me wonder if they even were so plain in the first place, or just not really considered. For instance that's sort of how I felt about the idea that annelids belong near molluscs not arthropods. There was a lot of investigation and debate before it was generally accepted, but it seems to me that the moment it was proposed segmentation might have developed twice, it made so much sense as they really have little else in common.

I have mixed feelings about redefining Saurischia to exclude most of the traditional saurischians, though. I think I get why, they don't actually all have lizard-like hips and it saves replacing it with a new name. But it does make for potential confusion – to the point where even that single LiveScience article uses it differently on the new trees from Nature and Cambridge.
It appears that several institutions are not accepting or supporting this "theory" at this time...

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Pierre Lamothe
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Re: The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#5 Post by Pierre Lamothe » Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:19 am

I think we just have to wait and see. Those scientists found that theropods grouped with ornithicians rather than with sauropods. Now those guys are waiting for old-school palaeontologists to join the dialogue.

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Re: The Dinosaur Family Tree Has Been Uprooted..

#6 Post by Traverso » Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:43 pm

Yeah, there's no rushing these things. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
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