> Jens-Hugo wrote:
>
> [quote from Pete:]
> >>Strictly, Dromaeosauridae is defined as " the most recent common ancestor of
> >>both Dromaeosaurus and Velociraptor", anything that is dromaeosaur-like, but
> ^
> |
> And all its (the ancestor's) descendants, I hope.
>
> >>does not fall within that clade is a Deinonychosaur. Hope this helps.
> >That kinda confused me. Deinonychosaurs are not Dromaeosaurids, but
> >Deinonychus is, right? So close to Velociraptor that it has been proposed in
> >fact to be a one. So why Deinonychosaur? How would that be defined?
>
> What Pete means -I presume - is that Dromaeosauridae is a subclade of
> Deinonychosauria (or whatever the name is). All dromaeosaurids are
> deinonychosaurs, but not all deinonychosaurs are dromaeosaurids. You are
> right
> about Deinonychus being very like Velociraptor, and unless I am very much
> mistaken, Deinonychus is a dromaeosaurid (and a deinonychosaur too, of
> course).
>
> >Any particular reason for that definition of Dromaeosaurid (which by the way
> >I usually can spell correctly :) )?
>
> That's the way taxonomists like to work these days. I prefer character-based
> clades, myself.
>
> So could someone post the definition of Deinonychosauria? And does
> 'dromaeosaur' mean 'dromaeosaurid'?
As far as I know, there is no Deinonychosauria. If there was, it
would be named the Dromaeosauria, since Dromaeosaurus is the first
known Dromaeosaurid. Anyway, you must be thinking of the
Velociraptorini, a subfamily of the Dromaeosauridae, which includes
(of course) Velociraptor and its closest relatives.
Also, I today saw the illustration of "Megaraptor" in Nat'l Geo.
The illustration makes it look about the size of Albertosaurus. I
have a hard time believing that a Dromaeosaur body frame could hold
all that mass. Anyone heard more about it?