>This is a really good question that I hope someone can give us a good
answer to.
>I have brought it up before but there has never been a response -- probably
>because it was usually an aside in a longer post. But I'm _really_
>interested in knowing how paleontologists decide that two fossils are of
>the same, different, or related species. I suspect there are some
>"invariants" like certain ratios and curvatures that might be identifiers
>of common or related species, and I believe dentition is a good clue to
>common or related species, but everything I know about this is hearsay. I
>hope someone in the group can give us a precis of the methods used and
>point us to some references.
Again, I begin with a disclaimer that I am not a paleotologist and I hated
comparative anatomy. But the complexity of the answer is directly
porportional to the number of different species that exist. The short
answer is that there are often very specific hallmarks that can, for
instance, be used to distinguish hyenas from dingos. Stephen Jay Gould has
several collections of well written essays on such issues. In particular, I
would recommend the book, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (Norton and Co,
1983). In particular, chapters 11 (on hyenas), 14 and the "Zebra Trilogy
(chapters 28-30) may be relevant to Bill and Russel's question.
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792
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