Re: Mongolian dinosaur inspires religion in grad student

[nino@ccuam3.sdi.uam.es]

At 11:27 30/09/96 -0500, J. Wagner wrote:

>6) loss of predentary teeth (sorry, it *is* a synapomorphy of
>        Oviraptorsauria, except, perhaps, alvarezsaurs...)
>7)  extreme tooth density (actually, the distribution of this character is
>        somewhat odd.  It works if oviraptorsaurs are arctomets, or it
>        is convergent, and synapomorphy of some Oviraptorsaurs (Monykus
>        and Therizinosaurodea).
>        The preliminary results of analysis including some of these
>characters gives a cladeogram something like this:
>        (remember to use an equal-spaced font for the full 2D effect!)
>
>                +-Dromaeosaurs    +-Tyrannosauroidea+Ornithomimoidea
>        +-------+MANIRAPTORIFORMS |
>        |       +-----------------+ARCTOMETATARSALI(=Bullatosauria(?))
>        |                         |
>--------+COELUROSAURIA            +-Troodontidae
>        |
>        |       +-Caegnathidae
>        +-------+OVIRAPTORSAURIA
>                |
>                |  +-Elmisauridae
>                +--+
>                   |  +-Alvarezsauridae
>                   +--+
>                      +-Therizinosauroidea+Compsognathus

Do you know that nearly all of the teeth character states are the same for
Ornithomimosauria (not Ornithomimoidea; and you have to include here
_Pelecanimimus_ for the teeth characters), Troodontidae and (I think)
Alvarezsauridae? Have you included _Pelecanimimus_ in your analysis?

Nino. 
Bernardino P. Perez-Moreno                   Fax: 34-1-3978344
Unidad de Paleontologia                      E-mail: Nino@ccuam3.sdi.uam.es
Departamento de Biologia                     Phone: 34-1-3978139 
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
28049 - Madrid
SPAIN