Re: Ceratonykus oculatus

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Mike Keesey wrote:

<In the interest of agreement between the codes, It would be better to convert 
"Parvicursorinae" as a PhyloCode clade and leave "Mononykinae" alone. Or, 
perhaps better yet, come up with a new name without a rank-associated suffix, 
like "Mononyki" or "Mononykia" or whatever.>

  We can coin a name like Mononyches (or Mononykes to agree with the 
convention), but I would tend away from this as it trods on the recommendation 
that names referring to features of anatomy should be applied to 
apomorphy-based definitions. Such a definition would make its content identical 
to what is known of Alvarezsauria

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


--- On Wed, 1/14/09, T. Michael Keesey <keesey@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: T. Michael Keesey <keesey@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Ceratonykus oculatus
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 10:51 AM
> On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Tim Williams
> <tijawi@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Anyone know why it was named "Ceratonykus"?
> 
> Presumably because of the odd spikes projecting from its
> wrist. (Which
> look to my untrained eye kind of like fused carpals or
> something ...
> which might have implications for frame shift. But I could
> be wrong.)
> 
> > According to the ICZN, yes, Parvicursoridae has
> priority over Mononychidae/Mononykidae.
> 
> (Actually, Mononychidae, the weevil family, should have
> priority
> [although I think it's generally synonymized with
> Curculionidae]. Of
> course, that's pretty irrelevant considering that
> nobody would ever
> try to synonymize it with these dinosaurian families.)
> 
> > But under PhyloCode, whichever clade is defined first
> (Parvicursoridae or Mononykidae) would get the gig.  Neither
> has been defined, AFAIK, although Mononykinae has a
> phylogenetic definition.
> 
> 
> -- 
> T. Michael Keesey
> Technical Consultant and Developer, Internet Technologies
> Glendale, California