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

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Nicholas Gardner wrote-

> >3. opisthopubic pelvis
> Why not split this into three states, like this,
> pelvis: propubic (0) mesopubic (1) opisthopubic pelvis (2) ?

Because I wasn't trying to improve Hou et al.'s analysis by adding
characters or states, just trying to make the states used more accurately
coded.  Also because no taxa in the matrix have a propubic pelvis.

> So a hypopubic cup is not a pubic boot?

A hypopubic cup is what happens when the pubic boots get splayed laterally
and eroded in the middle, to form an expanded concave surface in posterior
view.

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

Yes.

> 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)
> pygostyle: absent (0) present (1)

I agree, but I wasn't trying to add characters or states.

> >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.

No, they never defined where the pleurocoels were, but both Chiappe and I
assume they mean dorsal pleurocoels, as these are actually found in
Confuciusornis and enantiornithines (being very deep and elongate), while
caudal pleurocoels are not.  I said no _Mesozoic_ avians have been described
with caudal pleurocoels, some living taxa (eg. Struthio I think) have them.
Microvenator doesn't have them, just Nomingia and caenagnathoids.  Also
found in carcharodontosaurids and perhaps a few other things.

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

I don't think I meant to code it that way, but it has pretty damn reduced
hands, wouldn't you say? ;-)

Mickey Mortimer