Acronyms in the Bird Origins Debate

As some of my older readers may know, I have a special interest in the origin and evolution of birds. In my research, I have noticed quite a few acronyms used to describe certain positions on this issue. They are mostly used in internet discussions, such as the DML and the blogosphere. Because I have nothing better to do at the moment, I'm going to list all the acronyms I know of, what they stand for, and what they entail, to the best of my knowledge.


ABSRD-"Anything But a Small Running Dinosaur" Applied to people who flat out reject the idea that birds are descended from theropod dinosaurs.


BAD-"Birds Are Dinosaurs" Refers to the well supported and accepted idea that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs and in fact are a group of dinosaurs themselves.


BADD-"Birds Are Dinosaur Descendants" A slight variation of BAD.


BAND-"Birds Are Not Dinosaurs" Another, somewhat more popular, term for the few who still deny that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Closely related to, if not synonymous with, ABSRD.


BCF-"Birds Come First" George Olshevsky's hypothesis that dinosaurs are actually an offshoot of the earlier bird lineage. Darren Naish did two excellent posts on this interesting idea.


GOODD-"George Olshevsky On Dinosaur Descendants" An alternative name for BCF, in response to the fact that the original name of his hypothesis was somewhat misleading.


MANIAC-"Maniraptorans Are Not In Actuality Coelurosaurs" Easily the most notorious point of view on this list, it posits that maniraptorans are actually descended from birds, which in turn are descended from "thecodonts," crocodylimorphs, Longisquama, Megalancosaurus, etc. Thus, according to this view, maniraptorans cannot be coelurosaurs, or even dinosaurs! Not to be confused with BCF.

Well, those are all the acronyms I can think of. If I missed any, please let me know. Good day to you.