STEMS AND NODES

[Tetanurae <Tetanurae@aol.com>]

George Olshevsky wrote:
<<The original definition of Karhu & Rautian has been implicitly revised with
the publication of the _Shuvuuia_ paper, resulting in the expansion of the
family Parvicursoridae and subfamily Parvicursorinae to include _Mononykus_.>>

It hasn't though.  The Shuvuuia paper makes no mention of Parvicursoridae at
all.

<<This kind of thing happens all the time; cladistic/phylogenetic taxa are not
immune to it.>>

Not like this.  It is similar to Holtz' erroneous redefinition of Maniraptora
to include Ornithomimus, when Gauthier explicetly excluded Ornithomimus from
the Maniraptora.  Same kind of thing, Karhu and Rautian explicetly excluded
Mononykus from the Parvicursoridae, you can't change it to include it.

<<If the organization of the taxa in the _Shuvuuia_ paper is taken at face
value, then Mononykinae is a junior synonym of Parvicursorinae, by priority.>>

No it isn't.  Mononykinae INCLUDES Mononykus, Parvicursoridae EXCLUDES
Mononykus.  The simplist  thing to do would make Parvicursoridae a stem within
Mononykinae which is a node.

Peter Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com