Carnosaurs & Coelurosaurs (was Re: "Morosaurus" agilis)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 06:18 AM 7/7/97 -0700, Jon Woolf wrote:

>Suppose instead you were to say "Coelurosauria is birds and all
>theropods sharing a more recent common ancestor with birds than with
>_Allosaurus_, and Carnosauria is _Allosaurus_ and all theropods sharing
>a more recent common ancestor with _Allosaurus_ than with birds."  I
>think that says basically the same thing, but all the taxa referred to
>are firmly anchored by independent definitions and even the hint of
>circularity is gone.

Actually, I was going to write exactly what you wrote, which are the terms I
operate under.  However, the text of Gauthier's definition of
"Coelurosauria" uses 'Carnosauria' rather than '_Allosaurus_', so (to avoid
confusion, or so was my intent) I used something close to Gauthier's
original text.

Yes, I personally prefer the phrasing you suggest here.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661