Early Dinosaur Cladistics

[John Erick Schneiderman <dino@cwis.unomaha.edu>]

On Tue, 28 Jun 1994, Scott wrote:

>   I know that sauropods (family Saurischia) are not supposed to be closely
> related to Stegosaurs and Ankylosaurs (family Ornithiscia), but there seems
> to be an uncomfortably large number of convergent evolutionary features in
> dinosaurs!
> 
> Scott Horton
> Geophysicist/Computer Programmer

You too! For some time I have considered a Sauropod-Thyreophoran link.
This is the clade I have come up with...please send any comments.


birds  theropods  segnosaurs  sauropods  thyreophora  ornithiscians
  |        |          |           |           |            |
  |________|          ?           |           |            |
       |                          |           |            |
       |         prosauropods     |           |            |
       |                 |________|           |            |
       |                     |________________|            |
       |______________________________|                    |
                               |___________________________|
                                           |
                                           | 

This of course is only my guess.  However it does assist me in undestanding
segnosaur relations and the reasons sauropods developed in lines similar to
the Thyreophorans.

---John Schneiderman <dino@cwis.unomaha.edu>