RE: Rahonavis (was Re: Ornithoms, Parrots, and others)

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

At 09:57 AM 11/13/98 +1100, Adam Yates wrote:

>I suspected that _Rahonavis_ would fall out as a deinonychosaur in my
>latest
>phylogeny, but in my latest runs it comes out as a basal avialian
>(closer to
>birds than to dromaeosaurs).  However, as it is so fragmentary, and as
>the
>newer specimens of dromaeosaurids from both the Cloverly and Mongolia
>are
>showing a wider ranger of morphologies within that taxon, I wouldn't be
>terribly surprised if it didn't make the hop over to the dromaeo-side of
>things.
>------------------------
>
>This suprises me, I thought that the case for the avian status of Rahonavis
>was quite good, judging from the original description in Science.

There are some basal avian characters in _Rahonavis_ which are not yet known
in dromaeosaurids, but as I noted we are now finding a greater diversity of
morphologies within Dromaeosauridae.

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