W4MA (Wait for Mickey's Analysis)

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

Dear All,
    Well, I must admit the character distribution is even more muddled than 
I thought (those darn coelurosaurs).  ;-)  And I am now looking forward to 
Mickey's analysis with even more anticipation.  Please remember that I am a 
strong believer in cladistic analysis (and was therefore a little stunned on 
Thursday when Jaime seemed to be lumping me into the same category as 
Feduccia).
    I would much rather be viewed as Sereno-esque (a term Mickey used last 
weekend).  I don't like Sereno's nomenclatural philosophy at all, but I 
think his analytical approach does have some definite advantages (in spite 
of the fact that I disagree with his placement of tyrannosaurs).  He may 
have done better with more accurate codings.
    Anyway, I still think a paraphyletic Enigmosauria and a polyphyletic 
Alvarezsauria are still likely alternative hypotheses, and that Mickey's 
analysis will probably show support for one or both of them (even if they 
end up occurring in trees that are a few steps longer).  If my hypotheses 
are too unparsimonious, I'll shut up.  We shall see.
    In the meantime, I will do my hypothesizing on those particular topics 
offlist (and I am sure that has a lot of people applauding).
            :-)
               Cheers, Ken


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