CHILANTAISAURS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Before I start, question for Nick: what is the source for the Phil 
Currie phylogeny you discussed where sinraptorids were possible 
close relatives of abelisaurids and _Giganotosaurus_? I didn't know 
that stuff had been published yet.

On _Chilantaisaurus_, Tim Williams says...

> I think we can be fairly sure that it isn't a tyrannosaurid.  
> Part of the problem is that there's very little 
> overlapping material between _C. maortuensis_ and _C. 
> tashuikoensis_, so they may not belong in the same genus.

I think we can say that they *certainly* do not belong in the same 
genus: _C. tashuikouensis_, the type species, is probably a 
non-coelurosaur (a megalosauroid or a spinosauroid?), while _'C' 
maortuensis_ was referred to the Maniraptora by Dan Chure (1998). 
Chure cited reduced number of maxillary teeth, small and fused 
maxillary interdental plates and (among other features) a highly 
pneumaticised basicranium. This was in the JVP 18 abstracts volume - 
does anyone know if Chure is publishing a paper on the subject? And 
seeing as _'C' tashuikouensis_ clearly deserves a new generic name, I 
wonder if Dan Chure is going to give it one.

On the subject of theropods and their phylogenies, why has no one yet 
done a listing of the contents of the latest ish of _JVP_. Talk about 
dinosaur palaeontology as a burgeoning science! 

"Let us hope that armadillos can withstand their nemesis better than 
nodosaurids and most other dinosaurs did theirs"

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk