[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: Things To Look Forward To - SVP 2005 (Mesa, Arizona, USA) - Part 2

Jingmai O'Connor, Luis Chiappe and Gao Keqin (misspelled? Qeqin [I asked him
about this a while back and I think it is Keqin, but I don't think I've seen
"K" in other Chinese names])

"Keqin" is correct (in Pinyin). "Q" is not pronounced like "K" at all, though it may have a historical connection (like "hard" and "soft" C and G in French and English). It's pronounced... like... "X" with a t in front, and aspirated... and "X" is... hm... try saying "s", "sh" and the "ch" of Loch Ness at the same time. Yes, it is difficult.

will present on a sparrow-sized bird from the
Jiufotang of Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China,

I already wondered why none has been described since, what was the last one, *Aberratiodontus*? :-)

Julia Clarke and others will assess the timing and radiation of birds, which
largely focuses around *Vegavis*, so expect new and better stuff on this. It
will hope to show that, based on phylogeny, morphology of *Vegavis*, and
molecular timing, at least 5 basal avian divergences were present in the Late
Cretaceous, and that Neoaves itself may have diversified by 100ma. 

Do you mean Neornithes?

and the maxilla comprising the ventral margin of the orbit 

:-o

Phylogenetic data appears to support an osteolaemine ubiquity to African crocs,
whereas many species of *Crocodilus* may actually be osteolaemine instead! 

Wow...

Dånmark 

Actually Danmark in Danish.

Jorge Ferigolo and Max Langer will discuss the origin of the ornithischian
predentary, discussing also other "predentaries" found in nature, including the
mentomeckelian of some lizards, and birds,

Hm... the mentomeckelian bone, aka os mentomandibulare, is an ossification of Meckel's cartilage... frogs often have that... does this reach the jaw tip in those lizards?

and an _ossicula mentalia_ 

That's a plural. Singular: ossiculum mentale.

yet they found a new ornithischian from the Caturrita
Formation of southern Brasíl

Without an accent in Portuguese. (But Áustria gets one in that language. :o) )

[Brazil] with a pair of rostral bones at the rostral end of the dentaries with
the shape of a hook that apparently reveals the origins of the medial
predentary as an ossification of these paired _ossicula mentalia_.

Very interesting... I gather this is the previously announced animal from there, said to be both a Norian ornithischian and a silesaurid?

(In my opinion, this may also lend credence to claims that the mandible of
*Silesaurus* is even more ornithischian-like, but I would argue
the mutual appearance of the hook (?fused) to each dentary but not to one
another is reminiscent of the condition they describe for other taxa, but not
in ornithischians; it also does not overturn the host of data which imply
*Silesaurus* is non-dinosaurian. That all said, perhaps this is another of
those "silly saurids"....)

Perhaps we can start drawing a cladogram. The Caturrita Fm beast is more closely related to the traditional ornithischians than (to) *Silesaurus* because its mental ossicles don't fuse to the dentary anymore... :-} sweet speculation...