Re: Serenogram

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

At 05:06 PM 2/8/99 -0500, T. Mike Keesey wrote:
>I just got a look at the non-coelurosaur theropod definitions from
>Sereno's taxonomy paper. Didn't get to see the whole paper, so maybe some
>of this is explained elsewhere, but I have questions, anyway:
>
>Neotheropoda: Shouldn't this have _Ceratosaurus_, not _Coelophysis_, as an
>anchor? Didn't the original usage (by Bakker) exclude _Coelophysis_?

Yes, he did, which is why Padian, Hutchinson & Holtz (1997, in press) argued
a definition using _Ceratosaursu_.

>Ceratosauria: Why on Earth did he anchor this with _Coelophysis_????
>Wasn't it already defined as {_Ceratosaurus_ > Neornithes} (which makes a
>hell of a lot more sense, especially if _Ceratosaurus_ turns out to be
>closer to tetanurines than to _Coelophysis_).

Yes, it has already been defined as such, in Rowe (1989).

>Ceratosauroidea: This looks like a junior synonym of Neoceratosauria.

Sure does.

>Tetanurae: That must be a typo. I assume it's supposed to say 
>{_Torvosaurus_ + Neornithes}, not {Neornithes > _Torvosaurus_}, since he
>includes Torvosauroidea within. I had thought Tetanurae was stem-based,
>though...

Tetanurae is unambiguously defined as all taxa closer to Aves than to
Ceratosauria (Gauthier, 1986).

>Neotetanurae: Does this have precedence or does Avetheropoda?

Damn good question...  By publication date of *name*, Avetheropoda is older
by years.  By publication date of usage in a fully cladistic context,
Avetheropoda is older by weeks.  By publication date of explicit definition,
though, Sereno beat out the as-yet-still-in-press Padian et al. paper
mentioned above.

>Allosauroidea: The way he's defined it, isn't it a junior synonym of
>Carnosauria? I thought Allosauroidea was a node-based clade within
>Carnosauria.

It actually has been defined such in a couple of Holtz abstracts and in a
peer-reviewed chapter of a book: Holtz & Brett-Surman's Taxonomy &
Systematics chapter of _The Complete Dinosaur_.

>Hmmm... applying his definition of Spinosauridae to the cladogram on my
>site, birds are spinosaurids....

Indeed...

Refs:
Gauthier, J.  1986.  If you have to ask about this one... :-)

Padian, K, J.R. Hutchinson & T.R. Holtz, Jr.  1997.  Phylogenetic
definitions and nomenclature of the major taxonomic categories of the
theropod dinosaurs.  JVP 17(Suppl. to 3): 68A.

Rowe, T.R. 1989.  A new species of the theropod dinosaur _Syntarsus_ from
the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona.  JVP 9: 125-136.

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