Megalancosaurus

[Renesto Silvio <renesto@mailserver.unimi.it>]

 >Does Renesto place Megalancosaurus within prolacertiforms, close to them,
or closer to some other group?

I  basically agree with Dilkes placement as basal archosauromorphs,
possibly close to prolacertiforms. Olsen and Colbert in their  forthcoming
paper on Hypuronector (preview online at Olsen site) place the
drepanosaurids into Archosauriformes. If the still unnamed and undescribed
specimen I figured at Fig. 11 of the paper does really belong to that group
(the only one specimen so far known with a complete, articulated, and well
preserved skull), then we can probably place the drepanosaurids as an
offshot at the very base of the archosauromorph lineage (definitely no
antorbital fenestra and retention of some primitive features in the skull).
I cannot tell more on this animal since I was not yet allowed to examine it
more thoroughly :-( (remind Fabio message on the hadrosaur Antonio to have
a small insight on how things go in Italy, with vertebrate paleontology). 
 
     If I recall correctly, someone's cladogram had Megalancosaurus as an
even more basal archosauromorph (possibly even near euryapsids?).<<

I think John Merck did that at a SVP meeting.  

Cheers,

                                        Silvio Renesto

-

"Before being enlightened,   hard work; after enlightenment, hard work"
(Guo Yunshen).

Dr. Silvio Renesto
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università degli Studi di Milano
via Mangiagalli 34
I 20133 Milano
Italy

fax  +39-02-70638261

e-mail:    renesto@mailserver.unimi.it

or/and     Silvio.Renesto@unimi.it