Re: New Oviraptorid paper: Big Momma!

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Tom Holtz reported:

<Clark, J. M., M. A. Norell, and L. M. Chiappe. 1999. 
An oviraptorid skeleton from the Late Cretaceous of
Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia, preserved in an avianlike
brooding position over an oviraptorid nest.  American
Museum Novitates 3265: 1-36.
 
  This is the paper on Big Momma, the nesting
oviraptorid.>

  Yo! Mamma! It's about time! I thought it was her. I
need to wait a bit before I can get it, but can you
(Holtz) tell me what the specimen number is on this
thing? I've been hunting for it to my utter dismay and
failure.

<No skull means no specific identification, but it
clearly isn't _Ingenia_, and is much larger than
_Conchoraptor_, and other features are more similar to
_Oviraptor_ than to the other oviraptorids.>

  Lacks a large deltopectoral crest and apex of such
is above midshaft, so it's not "Rinchenia" (whenever
Barsbold's gonna describe it).

<New feature supporting an
oviraptorid-dromaeosaurid-bird clade to the exclusion
of other theropods for which the strenum is known:
articulation of the first three thoracic ribs with the
costal margin of the sternum.>

 What of the two lateral processes Barsbold (1983)
described, or is there an extra articulation he didn't
notice? Yeah, I know: standard Holtz reply #2: "read
the goddam paper!"

---

  What else am I gonna gripe about? No one's described
a new oviraptorosaur in 11 years! Oh, sure, all the
other groups get a new one every other year (dang
enantiornithines), but ovis? Noooo. Not ovis.
It's--it's---species bias! I'll get them for it, I
swear.....

===
Jaime A. Headden

"May I lure us, ere the mote ends us?"

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