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Re: Carnosaurs and friends



Tim Williams wrote:

>I don't like the name "Carnosauria".  Since it was first coined (?by
>Huene) I think it's essentially been redefined out of existence.  For
>the clade including _Allosaurus_, _Sinraptor_, _Yangchuanosaurus_,
>_Acrocanthosaurus_ etc I would name "Allosauria".  I would retain the
>term Carnosauria only for convenience - as a paraphyletic group
>embracing the Megalosauria and Allosauria.

        I don't like it either, but, again according to Nick P., it
has been redefined, and the re-definition does fit.  Allosauroidea is
used by Sereno, and is adequite to express Allosaur near relations,
consisting of the Sinraptoridae and the Allosauridae, along with a
grab-bag of other taxa, and is funcitonally equivalent to a re-defined
Carnosauria until the basal tetanurans are better sorted out.

>I like _Chilantaisaurus_ better as a megalosaur.  (I'm not even sure
>if _C. tashuikoensis_ and _C. maortuensis_ belong to the same genus)

        Hasn't there been speculation (in _The Dinosauria_) that one
of these is a Segnosaur?  As for true Chilantaisaurus (Chilantaisaurus
verdes?  Sorry, trilingual joke), didn't somebody say it has D-shaped
premax teeth?  Even without, I pretty much find myself aggreeing with
Paul that it's a tyrannosaurid.

>Could _Szechuanosaurus_ be an allosaurid?

        Possibly an -oid.  See my prior post on this, and I'll bet
it's a sinraptorid.

>I'm glad you mentioned _Gaso_ and _Kaijiango_, Nick.  What is the 
>situation with these too - are they same?  And are they sinraptorids?

        I need desperately to read the CJES articles on Sinraptor and
Monolophosaurus, but it seems that there is a possibility of them
being Sinaraptorids.  The base of the Allosaur tree, as Sereno points
out, is ill-defined a present.

>_Bahariasaurus_ and _Deltadromeus_ are probably basal coelurosaurs - 
>the paper by Paul Sereno (and his small army of co-authors) on 
>_Carcharodontosaurus_ established this quite well.  Their closest 
>relative may be _Dryptosaurus_.

IMPORTANT THING FOR DISCUSSION: Sereno's new article, in it's many
attempts to be tantalizing, has raised many questions.  See my next
post.

Wagner

+-------------------------------------------+---------------------------+
! Jonathan R. Wagner                        !   "Camin-Sokal Pars-      !
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! jrw6f@virginia.edu                        !    you determine who      !
!  http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~jrw6f  !    your own mother is..." !
!     Check out the paleo sections!!!!!!    !                 * * *     !
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