Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!crackers!m2c!jjmhome!smds!rh From: rh@smds.UUCP (Richard Harter) Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel Subject: Re: On classification Summary: Take it to talk.origins Message-ID: <405@smds.UUCP> Date: 20 Apr 91 05:52:12 GMT References: <527@eiffel.UUCP> <1135@tetrauk.UUCP> Organization: SMDS Inc., Concord, MA Lines: 26 In article , chl@cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) writes: > In <1135@tetrauk.UUCP> rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones) writes: >>|Ergo, mammals are dinosaurs also, and hence so are we. >>I'm not a zoologist, but I always understood that the mammals were an entirely >>separate species which evolved during the dinosaur era, and only flourished >>after the dinosaurs' decline. > Yes, but the first mammal had to evolve from something, and that something > was a dinosaur. It is puzzling to me why this is here, rather than in talk.origins which is the natural home of bogus science. Perhaps the intent is to illustrate the consequences of erroneous class inheritance. In any case: The mammals evolved from the therapsid reptiles. The dinosaurs evolved from the thecodont reptiles. The two branches are not closely related. Birds may have evolved from the coelosaurian dinosaurs or from the pseudosuchian reptiles [kin to the thecodonts]. There is still a lively debate going on about the origin of birds. -- Richard Harter, Software Maintenance and Development Systems, Inc. Net address: jjmhome!smds!rh Phone: 508-369-7398 US Mail: SMDS Inc., PO Box 555, Concord MA 01742 This sentence no verb. This sentence short. This signature done.