R: Alternative dinosaur phylogeny

["Alessandro Marisa" <amaris@tin.it>]

-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Raymond Ancog <rayancog@pacific.net.ph>
A: dinosaur@usc.edu <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Data: mercoledì 18 agosto 1999 15.31
Oggetto: Alternative dinosaur phylogeny


>Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:
>>For me, Saurischia doesn't exist--or rather, it is a synonym of Dinosauria
>>itself. The characters purportedly uniting sauropods and theropods are
>either
>>plesiomorphies (e.g., saurischian pelvis, skeletal pneumatization),
>>convergences (e.g., hyposphene-hypantrum articulations of the vertebrae),
>>poorly defined, or just plain incorrect. I reviewed the characters listed
in
>>The Dinosauria long ago and may even have sent my views to this list. I
see
>>sauropodomorphs and ornithischians as more closely related to each other
>than
>>either group is to theropods. This is also the view of Charig, Cooper, and
>>Bakker (all independent of one another).

>Can you give us the nomenclature Charig and Cooper use? Bakker's goes
>something like this (very simplified), in his Heresis books
>Dinosauria: lagosuchia, pterosauria, and "traditional dinosaurs"
> |
> +-Theropoda: carnivorous dinosaurs (coelurosaurs, ceratosaurs,
herrerasaurs?)
> |
> +-Phytodinosauria: herbivorous dinosaurs
>    |
>    +-Sauropoda/Sauropodomorpha
>    |
>    +-Predentata/Ornithischia
>His Dinosauria would be Ornithodira to others. He also uses Predentata in
>allusion to the predentary bone forming the top of the lower jaw), and
>informally calls them the beaked dinosaurs.


Yes, the predentary bone is a unique feature of Ornithischia, but I don't
think is right to call them beaked Dinosaurs, for me the only true beaked
Dinosaurs is Birds.

By
Alessandro Marisa
 "Volunteer of Paleontological Museum of Monfalcone"
Via Achille Grandi n°18
38068 ROVERETO (TN) ITALY
Tel: 039-0464-434658 Email: amaris@tin.it