Re: It's Mei day!!

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

>   There will be more on this set of fossils as time progresses. Sunny
> Hwang, primary author of the abstract in question, is in charge of
> describing this new Ukhaa Tolgod troodontid, whose skull is featured on
> the http://paleo.amnh.org/ website under the Gobi expeditions header as
> "Shuvuuia."

Here?
http://paleo.amnh.org/gobi/onload.html
right row, 8th from top

> *Sinusonasus* derives from these beds, but was preserved as a more classic
> "slab" then in tuffaceous rock, as was *Yixiansaurus,* allowing
> preservation of integument -- also in *Dilong.*

The one specimen of *Dilong* that preserves feathers is _not_ from the
Lujiatun beds, but from the overlying ones (*Sinosauropteryx*,
*Confuciusornis*...).

>   7. anterior dentary teeth smaller than posterior dentary teeth, more
> numerous, and more closely appressed than those in middle of tooth row
> (89.1) [I would split this character three ways, given it's a relationship
> of anterior to posterior dental separation, and relative size of crowns --
> it is, however, also present in *Microraptor* and "Dave," and is more of a
> deinonychosaurian apomorphy.];

Perhaps it is a single apomorphy: "mesial dentary teeth crowded". To decide
would require more knowledge of ontogeny...