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Afrovenator & Carcharodontosaurus, Verona, et al...



        I had heard that Verona was supposed to be, as they say
in other parts of reality, "really bitchen".  But then, so was
Pelicanomimus.  Funny, though, BCF predicts lots of bird-like
creatures being present way back when, but so do some other
theories (such as birds-from-non-dinosaurs, bird-mimics
everywhere, early-coelurosaur-radiation and birds-from-space),
but none of these theories will be able to claim that this huge
radiation of early birdlike forms is meaningful to it until thaT
amazing radiation is actually documented.
        Had a cat named Verona.  It had sicle-claws too...

        As for Acrocanthosaurus, Giganotosaurus,
Carcharodontosaurus, Saurophaginax, and Allosaurus, except for
the former, it seems like everyone is on the right track.  I'm
willing to bet that the family tree of the Allosaurs is a lot
more convoluted than we think (give me early Jurassic fossils
NOW!).  I think that throwing Afrovenator in with those guys is
somewhat hasty though, and before we decide to, we need to look a
little more closely at some of the material we *have* that could
shed some light on this, specifically, the
Torvo/Edmarka/Brontoraptor/saurs, Megalosaurus, and virtually
every large Chinese theropod.  Remember what happened with the
Abelisaurs: someone names a new family which is new and possible
uniquely "primitive", and then every theropod to come out of
Gondwanna gets accused of being an Abelisaur, if not by
professionals then at least by the rest of us (guilty of it
myself).

        Later,
        Wagner