RE: polyphyletic Alvarezsauria assemblage

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

    Oh, I can stand the heat.  That is no problem.  But I'm still going to 
respond to inaccurate and unconstructive criticisms, such as the implication 
that my phylogenies are 100% intuitive ("gut feeling" only).  You make it 
sound like I'm using ESP or a Quija Board to make my decisions.
    I certainly think Feduccia's approach is way too intuitive, but I would 
never say it's 100% intuitive.  He's put in a lot of years of hard work too, 
and dismissing all of his ideas without even considering them would be 
ill-advised.  I think he is way too criticical of cladistic analysis, but I 
certainly understand why he thinks that way.  Neither extreme (Zero% 
intuition or 100% intuition) is going to get a scientist anywhere.  But I 
don't think a Sereno-esque approach (that is more intuitive) has to be a bad 
thing.  It's all part of the "checks and balances" of the scientific 
process, and it always has been.  I'm no Sereno, but I'm certainly not a 
Feducciary either (not even close).
          ----- Cheers,  Ken
****************************************
Tim Williams wrote:
> If you can't stand the heat...  ;-)
>
> I have heckled "from the peanut gallery" for one reason.  "Gut-feeling"
> (i.e. 100 % intuitive) phylogenies are an affront to the huge amount of
> time, effort and money spent by paleontologists and evolutionary biologists
> in studying relationships between taxa.




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