Re: Re :_DEINONYCHOSAURIA

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-11-28 13:15:45 EST, Tetanurae@aol.com writes:

<< In a message dated 97-11-28 09:24:17 EST, forelf@internet19.fr writes:
 
 << I think Deinonychosauria was coined by Sereno to encompass Troodantidae
 and
  Dromaeosauridae. This group is often refused, because most paleontologists
  (I think, because I'm not (yet) one) think Troodontids are closer to
  Ornithomimids. >>
 
 I'm not sure, who in fact coined the term originally, I think it may have
 been Gauthier back in 1986, but as far as I know, Padian et al were the
first
 to define it cladistically, so their definition sticks.  I do know,
 historically, it has been used as the group containing dromaeosaurs and
 saurornithoidids, but it had never been defined as such. >>

Deinonychosauria goes back to a 1969 paper by Edwin Colbert and Dale Russell:

Colbert, E. H. & Russell, D. A., 1969. "The small Cretaceous dinosaur Dromaeos
aurus," American Museum of Natural History Novitates #2380: 49 pp.

As I have said before many times on this list, at the present time cladistic
definitions have no more authority than any other kinds of taxonomic
definitions, so Padian et al. should not be credited with authorship or
definition of this group. At best, they have simply recast Colbert &
Russell's original definition in cladistic terms. Until cladistic definitions
are formally recognized by an internationally constituted nomenclatural body,
such as the ICZN, as having priority over non-cladistic definitions, they do
not necessarily "stick."

Unfortunately, my copy of this paper is not yet with me, so I cannot confirm
Colbert and Russell's definition of the group, but I seem to recall it
included Dromaeosauridae and Troodontidae, united by the presence of an
enlarged ungual on pedal digit II. The latter family was later removed from
Deinonychosauria, perhaps even by our own Tom H., who placed it in
Arctometatarsalia and in Bullatosauria.

A reasonable cladistic definition of Deinonychosauria would be stem-based:
all theropods more closely related to Dromaeosauridae than to
_Archaeopteryx_.