Re: *Oviraptor*

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

Timothy Williams wrote:

<These could be just oddball members of well-known
lineages. _Itemirus_ is possibly either a weird
dromaeosaur or a weird tyrannosaur (and perhaps 
related to _Stokesosaurus_). _Ricardoestesia_ could be
a weird dromaeosaur, although I have wondered if it
could be some kind of wacky bird.>

  *Itemirus* possesses some features seen in the
braincase of dromaeosaurs, namely, *Dromaeosaurus*, as
well as asian tyrannosaurs (NA tyrants were not
compared, as I'm aware). No recent analysis has been
made of Iti, and one would be helpful in light of
recent discoveries and descriptions, and especially
when some of the new Liaoning stuff gets completely
described.

  *Ricardoestesia* is different because some features
of the teeth and jaw are found in aublysodont
tyrannosaurs, and in dromaeosaurs, but these could
_all_ be convergent, and may be related to diet.

<_Bagaraatan_ though seems to represent a unique
lineage of Late Cretaceous small-ish Asian theropod,
and _Shanshanosaurus_ might as well.>

  *Bagaraatan*, as Osmolska (1996) described the
situation, is too incomplete to qualify properly, even
in the light of new discoveries; several features,
including pelvic morphology and the tibia, are
interesting in and of themselves, but not wholly
helpful in resolving phylogeny. *Shanshanosaurus* has
been only _somewhat_ described, and a recent complete
description would help considerably. Such it has been
with Mongolian and Chinese taxa.


=====
Jaime "James" A. Headden

"Come the path that leads us to our fortune."

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