Re: "Phylogenetic Definitions and Nomenclature..."

["T. Mike Keesey" <tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu>]

On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:

> Deinonychosauria = all descendants of MRCA of _Troodon_ and _Deinonychus_
>         (A really unfortunate choice, in my opinion, given the very
> unconstrained position of troodontids: they might be the sister taxon to
> ornithomimosaurs, to oviraptorosaurs + therizinosauroids, to
> eumaniraptorans, to dromaeosaurids, or to higher birds.  Our definition (all
> taxa closer to _Deinonychus_ than to Neornithes) would have much the same
> content as Sereno's in his cladogram, but would not greatly inflate the
> content as in these other options (in which scenarios at least birds, and
> possibly oviraptorosaurs, therizinosauroids, ornithomimosaurs, and
> tyrannosaurids might be "deinonychosaurs")

Doesn't the definition in The Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs 
{_Deinonychus_ > birds} have priority?
 
--T. Mike Keesey                                    <tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu>
WORLDS                                  <http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~tkeese1>
THE DINOSAURICON                               <http://dinosaur.umbc.edu>