Re: Oviraptorosauria (and Abelisauroidea)

[Jonkeria@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/5/99 1:53:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu writes:

<< I didn't even know there *was* an _Archosaurus_... named before
 Archosauria? (Certainly wouldn't want to anchor Dinosauria with
 _Dinosaurus_...) >>

Archosaurus rossicus is THE oldest archosaur(iform), and it is a 
proterosuchid (meaning in your cladogram it wouldn't even be in 
Archosauria!!!) from the Vyazniki community of the Tartarian, Late Permian, 
Russia. It certainly wasn't named before Archosauria, as I'm pretty sure it 
was named by Tartarinov in 1960. Indeed, the skull is extremely fragmentary 
(as all the Russian fossils of the time are...) but it is enough to place it 
with confidence among such other hook-nosed croc creatures as Proterosuchus 
and Vonhuenia.

-Christian Kammerer