Re: Segnosauria! (really!)

["T. Mike Keesey" <tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu>]

> James Close wrote:
> 
> > Does Segnosauria
(better termed Therizinosauroidea)

> > still reside in Theropoda? and Is feet the only qualifier for being
> > a Theropod? 

Feet are one of the things that go *against* them being in Theropoda. Most
theropods have three functional toes and one dewclaw -- Therizinosauroids
have four functional toes.

The hands, with three digits and (in _Alxasaurus_) a semilunate carpal,
are more typically theropodan (specifically coelurosaurian).

 Jaime A. Headden wrote:

> However, many characters of the skull and postctrania (except the foot)
> are similar to ornithomimosaurs and oviraptorosaurs,

Actually, if therizinosauroids are the sister group to oviraptoroids, they
would *be* oviraptorosaurs -- according to The Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs,
Oviraptorosauria is stem-based (all animals sharing more recent ancestry
with _Oviraptor_ than with modern birds).

--T. Mike Keesey                                   <tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu>
DINOSAUR WEB PAGES -- http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~tkeese1/dinosaur/index.htm