Re: Revising Hou et al, 96 (very very long)

["Nicholas Gardner" <n_gardner637@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:
> 3. opisthopubic pelvis

Why not split this into three states, like this,

pelvis: propubic (0) mesopubic (1) opisthopubic pelvis (2) ?

> *. hypopubic cup
> This was not included because it is merely the ABSRDers excuse for
> Archaeopteryx's pubic foot.  Archaeopteryx does not have a hypopubic
> cup, though Velociraptor ironically has a similar structure.

So a hypopubic cup is not a pubic boot?

> 9. longitudinally elongate sternum
> Again, not seen in Nick's taxa, but is present in some enantiornithines 
> like Eoalulavis.

The original character was confusing.  I thought it was referring to the 
absence of gastralia.

> *. coracoid sulci on sternum

Is this, by any chance, the same as "sternum anteriorly slotted for 
coracoid"?

> 17. proximodorsal ischial process

Well, I got that one translated right from the paper where it was the 
anterodorsal process.  A small step but a step...

> 18. shortened tail with pygostyle
> Technically, there are taxa like Caudipteryx with long tails and 
> pygostyles, and we're not certain if things like Rahonavis and Yandangornis 
> had such small pygostyles, but for this analysis, the
> character is left as is.

It would make more sense to me to split this into:

tail/femur ratio: greater than 3.0 (0) less than 3.0 and greater than 2.0 
(1) less than 2.0 (2)

This was brought up in September last year by you and David Marjanovic.  I 
would think it somewhat useful as Confuciusornis has 1.08 whereas 
Yandangornis has 2.88 whereas Archaeopteryx has 3.78 and Deinonychus has 
5.88.  I don't really know as I haven't measured any others.

pygostyle: absent (0) present (1)

> 19. dorsal pleurocoels
> Hou et al. made this and the previous into a single character, which
> is ludicrous as they are not correlated at all.

Actually, Hou et al. had the character as caudal pleurocoels.  According to 
you, these are present in Nomingia, Microvenator, and the caenagnathoideans 
but not avians of any kind.

> 20. reduced fingers
> This supposed enantiornithine synapomorphy desperately needs
> quantification, so I'll take it to mean that the phalangeal count must be 
> at least as reduced as enantiornithines (2-3-1).

Good.  You figured it out.  I couldn't.  But you have Hesperornis coded as 
"1" when it shouldn't it be "?"...

> Clearly this is consistant with the standard avian phylogeny, but such a 
> small amount of characters will not do.

I know.  The analysis of maniraptors I'm currently working on in my spare 
time has a lot more characters than this.  I was just using what I could dig 
up from Hou et al.'s paper as practice.  It took me on a search through the 
Norell and Clark, 2001 data matrix and similar places.

----

Using Mickey?s data matrix on PHYLIP, I performed four runs.

Run 1:  Rooted consensus tree with added taxa

--+--Dromaeosauridae
 |--Rahonavis
 `--+--+--+--Jibeinia
    |  |  `--+--Protopteryx
    |  |     `--+--Boluochia
    |  |        `--+--Gobipteryx
    |  |           |--Longipteryx
    |  |           |--Iberomesornis
    |  |           `--Sinornis
    |  `--+--Archaeopteryx
    |     `--Sapeornis
    `--+--Confuciusornis
       `--+--Chaoyangia
          `--+--Yandangornis
             `--+--Liaoningornis
                `--+--Hesperornis
                   `--+--+--Patagopteryx
                      |  `--+--Neornithes
                      |     `--Yandangornis
                      `--+--Ichthyornis
                         `--+--Yanornis
  `                         `--+--Archaeoraptor
                               `--Yixianornis

Run 2:  Rooted consensus tree with added taxa but excluding Chaoyangia

--+--Dromaeosauridae
 |--Rahonavis
 `--+--+--Confuciusornis
    |  `--+--Hesperornis
    |     `--+--+--Patagopteryx
    |        |  `--+--Apsaravis
    |        |     `--Neornithes
    |        `--+--Ichthyornis
    |           `--+--Yanornis
    |              `--+--Yixianornis
    |                 `--Archaeoraptor
    `--+--+--Sapeornis
       |  `--Archaeopteryx
       `--+--Jibeinia
          `--+--Protopteryx
             `--+--Boluochia
                `--+--+--Yandangornis
                   |  `--Liaoningornis
                   `--+--Gobipteryx
                      |--Iberomesornis
                      |--Longipteryx
                      `--Sinornis

Run 3:  Rooted consensus tree with original taxa

--+--Archaeopteryx
 |--Dromaeosauridae
 `--+--Confuciusornis
    `--+--Chaoyangia
       `--+--+--Enantiornithes
          |  `--Liaoningornis
          `--+--Hesperornis
             `--+--Neornithes
                `--Ichthyornis

Run 4:  Rooted consensus tree with original taxa but excluding Chaoyangia

--+--Archaeopteryx
 |--Dromaeosauridae
 `--+--Confuciusornis
    `--+--+--Liaoningornis
       |  `--Enantiornithes
       `--+--Hesperornis
          `--+--Neornithes
             `--Ichthyornis

Nick Gardner
n_gardner637@hotmail.com

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