bird-mammal common ancestor

[matt spitzer]

In article <mturner.279.00120319 at acpub.duke.edu>, mturner at acpub.duke.edu
(mel turner) wrote:

> Well, many fossil skulls give endocasts that do say something useful about 
> brain structure.   I think quite a bit is known about the brains of several 
> fossil groups.

True, but in this case one would need to know details of cytoarchitecture
and neuronal projections

 
>  A better answer is to use the related-outgroup comparison method:  
> basic  logic: those characteristics found in  some members of a variable group 
> that are also found in  related outgroups  are the primitive conditions for 
> the variable group).  

Thank you.  I think this is the answer I was looking for.